


A Darkness Downed

by oneir_o_logist



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, come to the dark side sora, we have sea salt icecream
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-13 01:38:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 57,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneir_o_logist/pseuds/oneir_o_logist
Summary: The destiny islands are to disappear into darkness along with countless other worlds out there and it's up to Sora to fight the darkness and bring back those worlds...but what happens when Sora himself succumbs to the darkness, leaving his most precious friend behind...and the keyblade to choose another bearer?





	1. Sora

Sora had been having nightmares for the past few nights, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it might possibly be that was causing them, so when he woke up in a cold sweat for another countless time he wouldn’t have deemed it out of the ordinary, however this time he awoke to find himself lying on the soft sand of the Destiny Islands. It was the middle of the day in the middle of summer and nothing could be more out of the ordinary than the feeling of a cold shiver running down your spine while you lie in the warmth of the tropical sun that shone overhead.

It was so bright that Sora lay there only for a second before a reaching a hand out up above him to shield his eyes from the harsh sun, breathing in and out slowly he tried to come to his senses. He was becoming weaker and weaker by day and found himself yawning after every word of conversation. Lately he’d been losing tournaments and races with his friend Riku, which he usually never won anyway, but even Sora himself had noticed his own decrease in ability. Feeling he needed to find a way to get some sleep somehow, he thought maybe he’d fallen asleep on the beach to try to regain some shuteye, but as Sora wiped a slew of cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his gloved hand he sighed and realized that he probably wouldn’t have gotten any better a sleep on the burning sand than in his cool, comfy bed.

“Sora! What are you doing down on the beach?” a familiar voice called from behind. Sora, who was too tired to sit up and turn around to meet the voice, opted for stretching his neck back to greet his friend Riku. Sora lie on his back, watching Riku make his way toward him through upside down eyes. He tried to smile, but he was so taken by his grogginess he somehow wound up making some off-faced grimace before he found Riku standing over him. “Sleeping, of course! Kairi’s right, you are a lazy bum.” He threw his head back in a throaty laugh that exposed his perfect teeth that caught the sun in a shimmer. Sora instantly found himself wincing at the brightness of the refracted light.

Kairi had caught him resting on the beach earlier that day and she’d called him just that—a lazy bum, but not before giggling and hitting Sora over the head as he tried to blab on about one of the nightmares he’d just had. After that he’d trudged around the island exploring for a while before falling back asleep in the same place he’d woken just now.

With a well-placed hand, Sora blocked the light from Riku’s smile that had just blinded him a moment before. He could see that Riku, still laughing, held a tarp in one hand a rope in the other. Riku’s laugh was followed by a quick bubbly giggle from Kairi, who Sora had just noticed standing behind his taller friend. A coconut and a couple of mushrooms were cradled in her arms.  

“I told you he’d be down here, Riku.” Kairi said as she smiled up at him and then down back to Sora. “What is this, the second time today? The sun hasn’t even gone down yet!”

It had been Sora’s job to collect the supplies for the raft, but since he had dozed off on the beach his friends had taken the liberty to move on with the gathering.

“Well I… You guys gathered the supplies without me?” Sora asked, a bit downhearted.

“We couldn’t wait all day for you to wake up from your nap!” Kairi pouted playfully in a way that made Sora’s grimace turn into the smile he was trying for. It was no secret that Sora had liked Kairi since she first came to the island. It was wishful thinking, but he hoped that she liked him too, at least a little bit. He was kind of upset they hadn’t woken him up so he could go gather the supplies with them, because it was also no secret that Riku had liked Kairi since she first came to the island as well, as he seemed to take every chance Sora had with Kairi away.

“But you can still help us! There’s one more thing we still need.” Kairi said through a smile that seemed to brake Sora’s train of thought. He didn’t mind though, he’d listen to Kairi talk any chance he got, but as he was smiling and ready to listen, Riku had come in to finish the thought.

“More like three—we still need to gather the fish,” Sora and Riku had a playful rivalry when it came to Kairi’s attention, but Sora swore, sometimes he really set off his nerves. “We figured since you were down here anyway you wouldn’t mind getting them for us.”

If it weren’t for Kairi’s very, _very_ convincing, yet simple word of “please,” Sora would not have found himself trudging around the shallow waters of the ocean looking for some fish to catch. More than once, Sora had found himself splashing water on his own face to keep awake and alert. He hoped this would help him catch _something_ , since it had been over half an hour and he’d caught nothing, but it appeared as though most of the problem came from the fact that fish were all just too fast for him _._ Unlike most people, whose most brilliant plans come to them in the deepest hour of the night in that state of being not-quite-asleep, Sora did not do his best thinking when he was half asleep—so why he had decided to go in the water with his shoes still on was beyond him.

He stepped out of the ocean, his shoes pooling with water, pockets filled with flopping fish, skin itchy from the salt water that had dried under his clothes, and so exhausted he thought he was going to collapse. Sora’s very next step was followed by wobble knees and a sudden surge of gravity. Because he was exhausted out of his mind, it took the boy much more than a second to realize he’d not reached the sandy ground on his way down.

Riku’s strong arms were wrapped around Sora, his beautiful light green eyes creased into a gentle smile as he looked down upon the tired teen.

“You did good today, you lazy bum.” Riku chuckled as he ruffled the front of Sora’s hair, whether affectionately or teasingly Sora couldn’t tell.

“Riku…you jerk.” Sora’s voice was small and weak and it took all his strength lift his arms, but when he did it was to grab hold of Riku’s hand and bring it to his face. Sora’s eyes closed while Riku’s widened. “I’m so tired…I’ve been having all these crazy dreams and I can’t seem to get any sleep.”

“Sora, don’t be weird.” Riku tried to pull his hand away but Sora held tighter.

“No! I have to have your hand. If I don’t—if I don’t have your hand then—then I’ll lose you! If I don’t take your hand when I get the chance I’ll be drowning. I’ll drown…I’ll drown…I’ll…I’ll…” Sora’s voice trailed off as he slipped into a much-needed sleep.

“That sounds like some nightmare.” Riku smirked, watching Sora’s ocean blue eyes fall close in front of him. The two of them waited in that moment for a while. The sun had just begun to set, making the ocean look like it was made from liquid gold and all around them seagulls could be heard saying goodnight to each other. The sound of the waves crashing into the nearby rocks, although very soothing, were not at all loud enough to cover the obnoxious sound of flopping fish coming from Sora’s pockets so Riku sighed to himself and relieved his sleeping friend of his tokens of a job well done, wishing him sweet dreams and hoping he wouldn’t stumble onto any unpleasant nightmares tonight.

The sun had just set, leaving Sora’s room coated in the leftovers of the sun’s warm red glow. He’d always loved this time of day—the time just before it got dark. When you get the feeling that everything’s about to disappear…you have to make the most of the light you have left. Sora took a deep breath in, almost as if to inhale the light of the sun. He began to lose himself in his thoughts

It actually wasn’t his fault he’d fallen asleep in the middle of his hunting for supplies, but as Sora looked around the room, any worries that the day had brought to him began to fade away. He lay on his back and looked up to the ceiling where a wooden carving of a boat hung. Sora had made it himself when he was younger, when he thought that Riku, and later Kairi, would sail the seas with him onto new worlds. It was always what Riku had wanted to do, and as he talked more and more about it, it eventually became what Sora wanted to do as well. It wasn’t until Kairi came to their island when they really started to imagine their dreams into a reality. He’d even carved little versions of himself, Riku and Kairi and stuck them on the top. They were quite atrocious, but Sora had made them when he was still young, and Kairi thought they was cute. As he stared up at the toy in nostalgic admiration he could hear the words that Kairi had once spoken to him in his mind, “I just can’t wait. Once we set sail, it’ll be great.”

While wood-carving had always been a passion of Sora’s, he found himself working twice as hard after Kairi had mentioned how much she loved the things he made. His desk was littered with shavings and various sizes of wooden blocks lay scattered about his room. He’d even made himself his own dueling sword—two, in fact, when Riku had stolen his to get the ‘one-up’ on him in tournaments, he had to make another to even the playing field, even though he still found himself losing as much as he had before.

It wasn’t before long Sora had found himself succumbing back to sleep. After he’d confided in Riku earlier about his nightmares he’d found himself more at ease and knew the nightmares would cease. He wasn’t sure if he’d really call it confiding, considering he was falling back asleep and only managed to get out a few words. But he tried not to think about for his own sake, for if he did then flashes of images would come crawling back to him. Ones he tried to shake away—images of losing his friends, losing Riku…losing Kairi. Images of darkness. There was nothing Sora hated or feared more than the darkness.

Heart beating hard from the sudden awakening, Sora felt something was off. It was the middle of the night, but this time it wasn’t a nightmare that had startled him awake so suddenly. Lightning lit up the room and immediately after, a bone-rattling thunder shook the walls. Outside his window a nasty storm was forming over the Destiny Islands. A big black cloud swirled over the small piece of land, and what trees the island did have looked like they’d be ripped from their roots at any moment by the strong grip of the winds.

“A storm?” Sora muttered, then realization dawned on him. “Oh no, the raft!”

The thought of something that Riku, Kairi, and Sora had worked so hard on for weeks together being destroyed in a single night was enough for Sora to leave his bed and home and race down to the island to make sure everything was secure. Thankfully, the waters weren’t as rapid as they would have been during a storm, reason being there was no rain yet, which was strange considering how dark the clouds engulfing the sky were.

Closer and closer it became clear that this was no ordinary storm. A large ball of black flames turned slowly in the sky, emanating a dark power and creating an uneasy feeling deep within Sora. It was frightening, to say the least, nothing like this had ever crossed the Destiny Islands before, and even though it was night, the clouds covered the moon creating a distinct darkness that made the palms of Sora’s hands sweat beneath his gloves.

The boy stared up at it watching, waiting, until bringing his head down to notice two wooden boats, small enough to fit only a single person. Sora recognized each of these, as he was the one who’d made them for him and his friends to travel to the islands from the town and back.

“Riku’s boat. And Kairi’s!”

The fact that their boats were here on the island meant that the two of them had come to this place during the storm as well, presumably to secure the raft, but with no sign of either of them, Sora was not so sure.

He began squinting through the darkness, trying to locate his friends. He figured he could check the shack or maybe the secret place as those were areas that would provide some remote amount of shelter for his friends to take refuge. He thought he should hurry too, not because the storm was getting more intense by the minute, but because the thought of Riku and Kairi huddled together to comfort each other from the effects of the storm was enough to make him dizzy…but certainly not enough to make him hallucinate?

Sora was wide awake this time—he was sure of that, but it seemed to him as though he’d stepped right into one of his nightmares. The shadows on the island seemed too real, almost as if they were alive, and as each one became more distinct in shape, they rose from the ground and opened their eyes to reveal two bright yellow craters on each figure.

If it were any other day, the hero in Sora would have whipped out his wooden sword and begun fighting with all his might, but even though his nightmares had seceded for now, he hadn’t had the time to catch up on his rest and was exhausted still, so he dodged his way through the nightmarish creatures, avoiding them instead of fighting them, trying to find his way to the shack without tripping on sand. Just as he was about to push the wooden door open he saw a figure standing at the end of the bridged extension of islands. It was easy to judge who it was even through the darkness. Riku.

Sora’s heart began to race and he could feel a cold dryness in his throat. His knees felt weak and his thoughts began to race.

It’s not that he was disappointed to see Riku, but it was only him—no sign of Kairi. He wondered where she could possibly be—the shack, the secret place…where, where, where?

Before he’d even finished his thoughts, Sora found his feet at the edge of the bridge, standing only a few feet away from Riku. Without thinking he began to yell out the first thing on his mind.

“Where’s Kairi?” Sora demanded to know. “I thought she was with you!”

Sora didn’t even give the poor boy a chance to turn around before he began to shout. Riku didn’t need time to turn around though—he never did, as he began talking he kept his back to Sora, his eyes staring intently at the swirling ball of lightning and darkness that swallowed the sky.

“The door has opened…”

“What?”

“The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!”

“What are you talking about? We’ve gotta find Kai-“

“Kairi’s coming with us! Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see out parents again. There’s no turning back. But this may be out only chance. We can’t let fear stop us! I’m not afraid of the darkness!”

“Riku…”

Riku turned around to face Sora. His face would be so calm and collected if it weren’t for his eyes—widened ever so slightly to reveal an expression Sora had never seen before. Riku’s cool green eyes stared into Sora’s deep blue ones through the darkness that seemed to become thicker and heavier as time went on.

More shadows rose from the ground, and though they never opened their eyes, Sora couldn’t help but feel that this darkness was alive too somehow. Forming a pool of black and purple matter around the two’s feet, the large mass released its long arms into the air and began to dance around its guests. The corners of Riku’s mouth curled up in a small smile and he extended his arm toward Sora, offering his hand.

Sora’s eyes stretched wider than the vacant moon as the darkness crawled up his body and filled his shoes. The pool beneath him was so much thicker than water and it took no more for Sora to feel as though he was drowning. He felt as if he’d die if he didn’t take Riku’s hand…just like in his nightmares. With all his might, he reached for his friend, the strength of the shadows trying to hold him down. He felt heavy, as if he was sinking into the ground, and the forces that weighed down on him made his arm want to give up.

He reached and reached and he felt scared and terrified and numb. There was a brief feeling of static in his arms and legs before he was certain he’d lost feeling in them. With this numbness, there was no way to tell if his hand had taken Riku’s. He tried to look down at his hand, to see if he’d reached his, but there was too much darkness, so Sora kept his eyes locked on Riku’s, which had changed from a haunting stare to a beckoning call. He looked so calm and Sora swore his heart had stopped as the darkness wrapped itself around his chest.

So he closed his eyes.

And he took a deep breath.

Their fingers entwined in the dark.

 


	2. Kairi

Kairi had a lot of spunk for a girl her age. She was the type who would have had a lot of friends and would be popular amongst the boys…if it weren’t for her situation. Every so often you could hear the locals whisper about the mayor and his adopted daughter, the one who didn’t belong here, the one who doesn’t actually _do_ enough to be considered important, the one who would be better off if she’d found some friends, the one who didn’t know how to make any.

When she was younger, Kairi had spent most of her time on the beach collecting shells and fashioning them into different trinkets like necklaces and various charms as she watched the sunset and the birds fly to and from the not-so-far-off Destiny Islands. The islands were very close to the town and if you had a small raft and some friends you could probably sail there in no less than ten minutes. However, Kairi had neither a boat nor some friends. In one of her summers when she was younger, Kairi met two boys who carried a wonky-looking wooden boat with them and would use it to row themselves to the islands every morning. Sometimes she wanted to ask them if she could come along, or what they were up to, but most of the time they didn’t come back until after sunset, when Kairi had long since trailed back home. It was actually a long time until Kairi actually met these boys and talked with them face-to-face.

It was a special day from the start, Kairi made sure of it. She was making a new seashell charm out of the prettiest shells she’d collected over the past week. She’d known this charm was indeed lucky because it was as she had just finished placing the last part she heard a friendly voice over her shoulder.

“That’s really pretty!”

It was one of the boys that go to the islands every day. He had a very sweet face and soft brown hair that stuck up in every direction and he wore the goofiest smile that brought out the sharpness of his bright blue eyes.

“Sora, boys don’t say _pretty_!”

Behind him a tough looking boy with silver hair stood with crossed arms and pursed lips. He looked really irritated for some reason, but the boy he had called Sora just kept smiling down at Kairi. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wooden doll that somewhat resembled the silver haired boy, all was recognizable except for the expression which was calm and collected—not at all like the face the real version had on right now.

“I make things too. This is Riku.”

“It doesn’t look anything like me,” Riku muttered.

“It looks cute!”

Kairi giggled. It would soon become a very familiar sound among the three of them. After Sora had invited her to the island with them she became a regular guest and Sora and Riku had become two of her closest and dearest friends. Her life was so simple and clean, she would have never imagined a day where her life would be changed forever. However, it was night—not day, and her life certainly wasn’t the only one that would be changing.

Kairi had been up far into the night, too excited about their trip to sleep. Soon, she and her friends would be leaving on a raft to discover new worlds. It was never Kairi’s idea to leave the islands, she was happy here and didn’t mind knowing where her real home town lie, but there was a strange stirring in her, a longing for other worlds that had formed over the years from listening to Riku and Sora talk of them. They had spent forever on the preparation and finally thought they were ready. Everything was perfect and Kairi knew she was ready. She gazed out the window and looked for tomorrow but it was still dark out, too dark. Not even the moon shone on the waters of the Destiny Islands.

A bolt of lightning split the sky, a storm was making its way over the islands. It was almost certain that the supplies Kairi and her friends had gathered would be scattered and destroyed. Whether Riku or Sora were up at this time was a mystery, so Kairi thought it was her duty alone to secure the raft and the supplies with it. It hadn’t started to rain yet, so the short trip to get there would not be too difficult, but if she waited any longer then certain doom was sure to come.

The lucky charm Kairi had made when she was younger lay on her bedside table. It was the reason she had a raft out there to save. She grabbed the star shaped charm and rushed down to the beach. Two small personal boats were tied to the dock, pulling on the ropes that attached them, trying to float away to Destiny Islands. The winds grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment. One of the boats was Kairi’s, which meant that either Sora or Riku had already made their way toward the islands.

It was no doubt Sora who’d gone, it was just in his heroic personality to do something like this,  and by the way his sleep patterns had been changing lately, there was no doubt he had been awake at this time of night.

When Kairi arrived at the islands she quickly located the raft through the darkness. Oddly enough, it had not been secured yet. Picking up what supplies had been scattered, she hid them, along with the raft, in a small cave-like crevice in the wall to shield it from the winds. For further protection, she moved a large rock in front. Kairi was pretty strong for her age and the loose sand and high winds did give her some advantage in moving the large object.

Though still quite calm, the waters across the shore had become more rapid while Kairi was busy. If she left now there’s no telling what could happen on the way back. She needed to take refuge somewhere safe where the winds wouldn’t threaten to sweep her off her feet. She headed toward the secret place, a cave reachable through a small crawlspace behind the fountains.

Sora had shown her this place when they were little. He said that he and Riku would come here all the time and draw on the walls with the rocks they found in the fountain, and since Kairi was his friend now too, she should draw something as well. They had sat in the cave for most of the day doodling different things in different places. The very last thing they’d drawn was each other. Sora’s drawing of Kairi wasn’t _bad,_ after all they were just kids, but to this day Kairi is still proud of her clean drawing of Sora, and it was probably Sora’s fault she felt that way about her 4-year-old drawing. He went on and on about how amazing it was and that there was a real special place in her heart that had given her the gift of drawing. He went on and on until Kairi’s sides hurt from laughing and her eyes had become tired from rolling them.

The air was still inside the cave and Kairi took the time to smooth down her hair and clothes. Glancing at the drawings she and Sora made when they were little, she began to smile from the memories of their childhood, but her smile faded fast when she heard a noise behind her.

An old wooden door was placed at the back of the cave. It had never opened, and no one ever thought it did considering its lack of doorknob and odd shape. Many thought it was just some driftwood that had embedded itself into the walls, or was part of the cave itself. No one thought it lead anywhere—there was no evidence that it did, so it was strange to find Riku trying to pry open the door with all his strength.

“Riku!” Kairi shouted, but he did not turn around. He focused all his energy on the task at hand and when he spoke it was through short grunted breaths.

“Kai—ri, give me—a hand, why don’t—you?”

“Riku, what are you—,” Kairi was cut short. The door had flown open revealing an impossible abyss, darker than the moonless sky. A strong wind coming from within and shot through the cave. Kairi raised her arms to shield herself from the darkness that began to fly out. Each shadow seemed to go around her or phase through her. Slowly, Kairi raised her head to see Riku standing in front of the open door.

“What did you do, Riku?” Kairi demanded to know. The two were shouting, trying to be heard above the rushing winds.

“I opened it! I opened the door! Now we can go see the outside world, we can visit the place you came from! It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“No! I never wanted to leave the island. Riku, since the beginning you were the one who—.” Toppled over by an especially strong gust of wind, Kairi had lost sight of Riku. There was a pain in the back of her head and through blur of her own vision she saw Riku standing over her with a menacing look on his face. The whole world seemed to quite as he whispered down onto her.

“You were never supposed to come here.”

Everything went dark. As if she’d been sucked through the door into the darkness itself.

It was too dark to tell when Kairi had finally opened her eyes. She couldn't see her hand as she waved it in front of her face, and she couldn't feel the ground beneath her—as if there wasn’t any at all. Nothing could have added more confusion to the situation than a small light from her chest that slowly began to glow. The necklace she'd worn since she was little—before she'd come to the islands—emitted a soft white light that lit up the darkness of the cave around her.

Drawings her and her friends had done when they were little plastered the walls around her and a door that had once never been opened stood tall above Kairi, leading the way into eternal darkness. Shadows raced out the door and out of the cave, stuck to the ground, passing right under her feet. She could feel them—she could feel the cold touch of each demon, and the sinking feeling that each one brought upon her, making her sick. She touched the back of her head and winced slightly, dizzy still from her earlier fall.

Something had to be done about the door and whatever was escaping it. If it can be opened then it can be closed. At least that's what Kairi thought, but every step she took toward the door became more difficult than the last. The light from her necklace dimmed to a small shimmer that beat in pulse with her heart. She felt her body weigh down on her as each foot step became heavy in the sand. The currents felt numb on her face and her feet had become too heavy to move. The feeling in her arms had long gone, so she couldn't tell when her fingers pressed against the wooden back of the door. And through her dimming, blurry vision, she couldn't tell when the shadows had ceased and the door shut close. And whether the numbing winds had stopped, she never knew, but she could feel something was right—something had been fixed and she smiled and she knew she was because she could feel a warmness on her cheeks. She relaxed at the tingling sensation she could feel in her fingers. While she lifted her feet with ease and took two steps back.

She just needed to secure the raft and take shelter. Never would she have thought to end up in a situation like this, but everything was alright now. By this time the light in her necklace had completely gone out. She felt her body drop to its knees in exhaustion and the cold touch of the sand beneath her. In the still of the dark she heard her heart beat begin to calm and Kairi recalled the one person that might still be on the island with her.

A loud crack of lightning shook the cave and the sand beneath her knees. Her necklace began to glow again, not any brighter than before. As Kairi rest in the cave, safe from whatever elements might be outside. She began to pay less attention to the weather’s behavior. Every now and then the cave would become lit and she would gaze at the drawings on the wall only to be covered with darkness a moment later. It pulsed on and off like this for a while, she almost didn't notice the scratchy sand under her knees begin to shift out from under her. Grain by grain, it rolled out the cave entrance, slowly at first, then all at once until it took Kairi's balance from under her. She stood back up to dust herself off, looking back toward the entrance.

She thought maybe the winds had been pulling out the sand, but the way it moved…it was too peculiar. She took small steps toward the mouth of the cave, trying to figure out what was going on. If the winds were this strong here, it was worrisome as to what was happening outside. A noise behind her grabbed Kairi's attention. It was a short rattling sound that stopped as her head whipped around and her gaze met the door. Things were quiet for a while save for the soft sound of sand shifting beneath her feet and out the entrance.

She stood there waiting.

Watching.

The door burst open with a vengeance and a gust of wind strong enough to carry Kairi back and out the entrance along with every grain of sand with her. Shadows spray from every direction, they filled the floors and smothered the walls. Kairi fell back onto the ground of the fountain outside the cave. She inhaled more than one or two drops of water as she tried to regain the breath that had been knocked out from under her.

The state of the island was overwhelming, even though there wasn't much to see, but that was exactly the problem. Trees had been uprooted, the shack had been ripped straight from the ground, and there were various bits and pieces of the island missing, literally missing, and more still began to disappear up into the air. It was the winds—it tore pieces of the island off and into the sky where a monstrous storm brew. A big black swirling storm of heat and lightning engulfed the sky. Kairi looked over to the dock which was expectedly gone along with her and Riku's boat and she looked only for a second before she found herself staring back up at the thing that was consuming her world once more.

There was no turning back. The only safe place on the island was a haven that was no longer a shelter. Kairi realized she could no longer save herself and the only other person that could was nowhere to be found. Riku was long gone and even if he was here, there's no way he'd be any more helpful than he had been before. What was trying to do? Why did he say those things to Kairi…what did he mean?

_You were never supposed to come here._

In any case,  _he_ wasn't the one Kairi needed, nor was he the one she was looking for. But there was no telling whether Sora had been awoken by the storm, and the chances that he was awake and had decided to come out to the island in such a storm were dim.

And yet Kairi found herself speaking softly his name in the dark…

_“Sora…”_

…until the light from her necklace pulsed no more. What could a girl like her do? She'd lost two homes, who knew where she would end up next? Who knew if she’d lose her memories again? She couldn't remember anything from her previous town. The thought of forgetting her friends was enough to pull a tear from her eye. So Kairi brought herself down to the sandy shore and tried to recall every day with Sora and Riku so they were fresh in her mind and so close to her she could feel them.

Kairi sat on the sand and looked out toward the waters until there were none left.

She looked up to the sky and tried to find a nonexistent star to count on.

She clutched her lucky charm close to her chest, hoping it would bring her friends back to her.

She could still see their smiles as the ground fell from beneath her.

And as everything else faded, she kept their memories alive in her heart.

 


	3. Riku

The Realm of Darkness was nothing but a narrow path that float in the darkness, seemingly leading on forever. However, the darkness was not absolute in blackness. Shades of purple and blue emitted a soft light that lit up the corridor and lined the edges of the pathway. The cool hues shone delicately on the faces of two boys who had somehow found their way in.

The younger of the two, Sora, was a kind-hearted individual. He had a heroic personality and was quick to forgive, with bright blue eyes that lay closed—he was sound asleep on the floor of the Realm of Darkness. Older by only a year, Riku, lay next to him. Riku was a boy who was not afraid to go beyond his limits, he was cooler headed than his friend and the dark and mysterious atmosphere around them seemed to suit him much more than the sunny sands of the Destiny Islands. His green eyes shot open and a harsh look fell upon his face.

Sora and Riku’s fingers were laced together. When havoc wreaked upon their home island Riku had offered a hand to Sora and took him into the darkness in order to save him from disappearing along with the Destiny Islands. Riku pulled hard at his hand and tried to break free. This jerked Sora who, thinking he was slipping away from his friend, tightened his grip.

“Let go of me!” Riku shouted. He tried to pierce through Sora with a harsh glare but to no avail. It was obvious that Sora’s eyes were still adjusting to the darkness around them. By this time Riku had brought himself to his feet and was yanking hard Sora’s arm. Sora, who was had been pulled up to his knees, grabbed onto Riku with his second hand, refusing to let go. His eyes had adjusted and he met them with Riku’s—no, a stranger’s eyes.

“You’re so annoying! I said let go!”

“Riku, what’s gotten into you!?”

Sora’s choice of words couldn’t have been more appropriate. As they left his mouth, Riku had stopped pulling and straining against Sora’s grip. His eyes widened as he fell to his knees, now level with Sora. Riku began choking and coughing violently. It was like he’d inhaled the ocean water and was trying to cough it out, but what came out of his mouth was in no way water. A black sludge fell from his lips and onto the ground beneath them. It slinked away off the path and fell into the darkness below.

“Riku!” Sora still held tight onto Riku’s hand and kept him up from falling over with his other. He felt terrified watching his friend suffer, and the noises that came from Riku were more than worrisome.

A few moments of silence passed and neither of the two said anything. Whatever was inside Riku was gone for now. The boy let out a few deep breaths and realized both of his hands were wrapped tightly around the whole of Sora’s one hand. He was almost certain that it was Sora who had grabbed his hand with both. His hands trembled at how tightly had been holding onto Sora’s hand. It had seemed so much like Sora was the one trying not to let _him_ go but in reality Riku feared nothing more than losing Sora, especially to the darkness he himself had brought him into.

Back on the island, Riku had willingly decided to succumb to the darkness. He thought it’d keep him safe, so he wondered why it had begun playing tricks on him. He began to fear for Sora’s safety as he wiped a bit of excess darkness from the corner of his mouth, leftover from what was inside of him.

He loosened his grip on Sora but still kept one hand with his, using the other to check his friend of darkness that may have snuck its way into the boy. He was frantic, turning Sora’s head this way and that, and he even lifted his necklace and looked between the messy tuffs of hair on his head.

“Are you alright? Sora, did you swallow any of the darkness?” Riku stopped and stared into Sora’s eyes, not sensing anything different other than a slight fear, most likely caused by Riku’s darkness expulsing moment just a second ago.

“I’m fine. What about you?” Sora knocked away Riku’s hand from his face, not sure of his close friend’s current state. “What was that—thing—just now?”

“Darkness. While I did let the darkness consume us, I didn’t think it was possible for us to consume darkness.”

“So that thing just now…that was the darkness? Is that what took our island!? Riku why would you come here?”

“What matters now is that we’re safe—that _you’re_ safe. Okay?”

Sora didn’t say anything. Instead his head dropped to the ground and Riku felt Sora’s fingers loosen their grip on his.

“Hey, Riku…what you said just now. Do you think I’m annoying?”

“Of course not! Why would you—“

“But you said it. When you had the darkness inside you, you—“

“Listen, Sora. Whatever I said when I was being controlled by the darkness, I said while being controlled by the darkness _._ Anything I said tonight—I didn’t mean it.”

Sora’s head shot up and his eyes met Riku’s, but surprisingly they had no sense of relief anywhere in them. Instead, a harsh glare plagued his face. For a moment Riku thought the darkness must’ve gotten into Sora just now, but that didn’t seem to be the case, especially not with what came out of Sora’s mouth next.

“Then what about Kairi? You said Kairi was coming with us! I guess you didn’t mean _that_ then either, did you?”

Riku thought back to when he last saw Kairi and he winced at Sora. He knew Sora would be unhappy if he told him of the awful things he said to Kairi while he’d been under the darkness’s control. When he’d opened the door and a gust of black wind had entered his mouth, but he didn’t think anything of it at the time. It wasn’t his fault—he couldn’t do anything about it and yet he found himself responsible for whatever Sora was feeling at that moment.

“Sora…I’m sorry.”

Although Sora was one who was quick to forgive, Riku wasn’t so sure he could ever look him in the eyes again. He felt it inappropriate to still be holding his friends hand now that the obvious danger had gone so he slowly let his hand slip from Sora’s, not expecting the fast reaction of Sora’s sudden tight grip.

“No! Please don’t let go! I’m sorry I got angry at you. We’ll get Kairi back. We’ll find her, but you just can’t…you can’t let go of my hand. Not here.”

It was obvious that Sora was fighting back tears now, whether from the thought of losing Kairi, Riku’s hand leaving, or a combination of both. Riku tried to figure out why Sora was acting like this. On any other occasion a playful rivalry would simmer between them, but now Sora couldn’t seem to be less ashamed of his tight fixation on Riku’s touch. It didn’t take long for Riku to recall that Sora’s sleep patterns had been changing dangerously lately and he was almost certain Sora had been babbling about a nightmare he’d had when they were on the beach earlier that day.

“Sora, those nightmares of yours…?” Riku didn’t need to finish his sentence. Sora had his head down but even from here Riku could see his tight lipped expression. Sora nodded and let out a small sound.

“Mhm.”

“All right.”

Riku didn’t want to pry. He only wanted to talk about them if Sora didn’t mind. He wasn’t sure whether or not Sora would cry this time around if he scared him again.

“I’ll be fine, Riku. Just…as long as I don’t let go of your hand.”

“How come?”

“Well, in my nightmares I see either you…or Kairi, and either of you are just standing there, reaching your hand out to me. I always reach out to grab your hand but—“

“But?”

“You know how when you’re trying to run in a dream and you just—can’t? For whatever reason you’re not fast enough, no matter how hard you’re trying? Well it was like that, and I couldn’t reach either Kairi’s or your hand. Then suddenly I’d find myself falling backward into the ocean or sometimes I’d just sink down into…darkness.” Sora paused for a second and took his breath. “Last time a wave came and swept me away from you so that’s why—that’s why…” Sora’s voice became hurried toward the end and he squeezed Riku’s hand in his own. “That’s why I can’t let go of your hand. I feel like if I do, I’ll drown.”

Riku looked down at Sora whose head rest against his chest. He couldn’t be sure if he was crying. He couldn’t be sure if it was his fault. He couldn’t be sure if he felt it—the sudden wetness on his shirt as Sora fell completely silent.

Riku ran a hand through the mess of hair and tears that was Sora. His voice whispered through the dark a promise to not let go of his hand and almost like an echo, Sora repeated the words.

A promise to never let go.

“Because if you let go…”

“Don’t worry Sora, I won’t let you drown.”

There wasn’t much to do in the Realm of Darkness. Nothing to do but sleep, which is just what the two boys, covered in shadows, did, or one of them at least. Their hands now forever entwined, Sora slept soundlessly next to Riku, who could do all but sleep at the moment. He wasn’t sure if it was near midnight or if morning had already come. It was hard to tell, in this land of eternal night, whether the sun had risen or not back on their home, the Destiny Islands. A sudden flash of realization came upon Riku.

 _Of course there’s no sun on the islands. There’s no_ islands _for the sun to shine_ on _._

And Riku couldn’t help but feel it was his fault—no—he _knew_ it was his fault. The day before they’d plan to sail on their raft, Riku and Kairi set out to gather supplies around the island. There were a couple of mushrooms on the list so they decided to split that part among the two of them. Kairi had found the first two so Riku was in charge of the last. He looked everywhere around the island for another mushroom and finally found it in the secret place—a cave that he used to draw on the walls with Sora when they were children.

He looked around, somewhat annoyed at the fact that it wasn’t just his and Sora’s drawings that marked the wall anymore, but Kairi’s too. He always felt it unfair that Kairi was Sora’s favorite. Riku cherished both of his friends equally. He’d do anything for them. Anything. Yet Sora treated him and Kairi completely different and Riku knew it was because he had a crush on her. He didn’t want it to ruin the perfect friendship the three of them had, and Riku would interrupt the two whenever he could.

The mushroom was sitting in the furthest corner of the cave next to some dead tree branches. He plucked it from the ground and flinched when he heard a sound behind him, and instantly took a stance. He did look a bit ridiculous, where his wooden sword would have been he held a mushroom, as though it would provide some strength to him against a possible attacker. But the stranger in the back of the cave, toward the large wooden door, did not laugh. He did not—seemingly, have a face at all. A brown, oversized cloak covered his body and a hood was pulled down over his head.

“Where did you come from?” Riku demanded to know.

“I’ve come to see the door to this world.” His voice was quiet, raspy, and sounded somewhat detached.

“Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

“This world has been connected. Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed.”

“Yeah? Well, you’ve seen your door. Now, get out of here, whoever you are!”

“You do not yet know what lies beyond the door.”

“Wait, are you from another world?”

“There is so very much to learn. What you choose to understand is up to you.”

“This door, does it lead to the outside world? Can it be opened?”

“A worthwhile effort. You who knows nothing might be able to understand…something. Unconventional boy, you are so different from the others.”

“The…others?”

Puzzled enough by the stranger’s words, Riku dropped his guard. He looked over to the large wooden door next to him. It had always been a dream of his to leave the islands. Ever since he was a small boy, that’s what he wanted to do. Saying he wanted to leave for Kairi’s sake and find out where she came from was just an excuse. He knew perfectly well that Kairi was happy on the Destiny Islands, yet he could never admit the real reason he wanted to leave.

_To become strong—strong enough to protect the things that matter._

In the moment that Riku had let his eyes wander from the stranger to the door, the figure that stood nearby had seemingly vanished, leaving Riku alone in the cave that begged to drag him into a state of childhood nostalgia. He gave one last long look at the door. If this world really was connected, and that door did lead to the outside world then…then… He decided he’d come back later that night and see for himself what secrets lie beyond the ‘door to this world.’

It was a mystery as to how long Riku had been lost in his thoughts. Being stuck in the Realm of Darkness was something very dull. With only thoughts and dreams to entertain you, Riku clenched a fist at the memories that visited him. Sora groaned at the sudden tight grip and stirred in his sleep. Riku did not relax his hand at this. It was _he_ who opened the door for his own selfish reasons. What a waste, as he never got to see what was beyond it. Now he was who-knows-where, a place Riku still didn’t know was safe or not.

“Riku, are you all right?”

Sora had awoken, all groggy. He rubbed his eyes with a free hand and looked over at Riku whose whole body had clenched up.

“I’m sorry to have put you in this position, Sora.”

“Well, I’m fine. And I know nothing bad will happen to me…” He let out a long yawn. “…because you’ll be here to protect me. And nothing bad will happen to you, because I’ll be here to protect— _yawn_ —you.” Sora’s words were calming and Riku relaxed and messed Sora’s already messy hair.

“I know you will. Did you sleep well, Sora?”

“Yeah! You know what’s strange? As scary and dark as this place is I didn’t get any nightmares. I think it means everything’s going to be okay now!”

The smooth of Riku’s glove ran over the calloused tips of Sora’s fingers. Sora was a bit of an amateur carpenter, he’d made Riku’s wooden practice sword when they were little; it was good and strong, and it had held up to the very day. He’d even made the boats they used to ride to and from the Destiny Islands, but he’d made those things years ago and the callouses on his skin would’ve gone away by now. Riku turned Sora’s hand over in his own and noticed small, fresh blisters on the sides of his fingers.

“Sora, do you still make things with wood? Your hands look like you’ve been working.”

Sora muttered an “oh,” and readjusted his position so he was sitting straight up and no longer slouching from sleep. He blushed a little and searched the ground for something to say.

“I uh... I thought since the three of us were going to leave the island I might as well make something special, or something. Y’know since Kairi’s always making those charms and what not.”

“You made something for the three of us?”

Sora never made anything for anyone else, even if he made dolls of his friends, which he’d only done once when he was little, he kept them for himself. The same with Kairi, she made all these charms but had never once offered one to Riku or Sora. The only thing that had been for him specifically from Sora was the wooden sword which he cherished so dearly, and that wasn’t even made for him—Riku had just taken it to have an advantage over him when they battled. The boat was not made for him either, but for Sora himself to share with Riku. When Kairi came around, one boat wasn’t enough—and when they got older, two wasn’t enough. Sora had to make another one—for himself and again later, one more for himself.

“Well…I mean, I made something for Kairi, but—”

Sora stopped midsentence, no doubt pondering the whereabouts of his dearly beloved. When he didn’t continue Riku ran his thumb over Sora’s overturned hand. This seemed to bring him back up, if only a little bit. Sora reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a small wooden figure. It was smooth and perfect, unlike his other carvings which were often hacked into jagged   
‘close-enough’s’ that were made out of whatever wood he could scrap together. But no, this one was an ashy gray, it was the color of destiny and Riku recognized it instantly.

“Sora, is that wood from the paopu tree?!”

“Yeah, I made it special. I thought if I made her something she’d give me one of those charms she’s always making. Look!” Sora pulled out a chain from his pocket that was attached to his jumper. “I even have a little place to hook it when we trade!”

Sora had brightened even more, but Riku’s mood was dwindling as he soon realized the figure was indeed a small replica of Kairi. It was beautiful. An intricate design of a seven-pointed sun, carefully painted a rose color, was carved into the body, which was shaped like a star. A star similar to that of the fruit of the paopu tree. It was common knowledge that if two people share the fruit of the tree their destinies will become intertwined.

“I just… I wish I could’ve given it to her.”

“Don’t worry, Sora. We’ll find her.” Riku said through gritted teeth. He was irritated, without a doubt, but he kept it concealed.

“I made one for you too, Riku.”

“Huh? But you said you’d only made one for Kairi.”

“Well, I mean, I _made_ you one a looong time ago. I got it off that wooden ship in my room. I was hoping I could use it as a reference to make a new one, like I did with Kairi’s.”

Riku’s interest was piqued as he watched Sora reach again into his pocket and pull out another small wooden figure. This one was bigger than Kairi’s and crudely carved. The wood was old and withered and looked like it was about to fall apart. Sora put the small figure on the ground next to the replica of Kairi. It made a louder thump when he placed it, so it was no doubt a heavier wood than the light wood of the paopu tree. A calm expression was worn across the Riku replica. The hair was jagged and the face was of the most mediocre of shapes, but something welled up inside Riku when he saw it—the carving that Sora had made at least ten years ago…he’d kept it all this time.

“It looks exactly like me.”

“Eh… I was gonna make another one later so I guess you can keep that one.”

Riku smiled and paused for a bit before realizing something and asking, “Sora, where’s yours?”

“Mine?”

“You didn’t make one of yourself? You selfless brat!” Riku dropped a firm hand onto Sora’s head.

“He-hey! It’s not my fault! I just forgot is all.”

“How do you forget _yourself_? Come on.” Riku picked up the wooden dolls and pulled Sora to his feet and began dragging him down the shadowy path.

“Where’re we going?”

It didn’t take long for Riku to find what he was looking for—a tree. He stood with a hand on his hip, looking up very pleased as he wasn’t entirely sure if this place _had_ trees. In fact, he’d almost missed it. It could’ve been the lack of light, but it was more likely the fault of the color of the bark. It was a very dark gray, almost black like the darkness surrounding it.

“Here.”

“Here?”

“Sora, this is a tree.”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“Sora, are trees made out of?”

“…Wood?”

“Yes. Yes they are.”

“Riku, what exactly are you getting at?”

Riku held the doll replicas of himself and Kairi up for Sora to see.

“What are these, Sora?”

“I know what they _are_ Riku, I _made_ them.”

Riku gently struck Sora atop the head with the dolls in his hand.

“These are your friends, Sora. What is missing?”

Sora let out an exaggerated groan. It was obvious Sora was tired of Riku beating around the bush and Riku couldn’t help but noticed and stifle a laugh.

“Why not make a figurine of yourself?

 “ _Riku._ ” Sora continued his tone of exaggeration. “I can’t just _make_ them. I’m not some machine that just pumps out figurines whenever someone wants.”

“But Sora, the dolls need their friend, _Sora._ ”

Riku shook his hands to make it seem like the dolls were talking. He made his voice lower than it necessarily had to be for his own doll.

“ _Where’s Sora?”_ He made the Riku replica ask. His voice became extremely high pitched and girly for his voicing of the Kairi replica. “ _I miss Sora_!” He made it say, and which did not elicit the chuckle of laughter he expected from Sora, but it did leave a small pout on the boy’s face.

“ _Sora! Sora? He must have left us_!” The Riku replica yelled.

“ _NOOoo!_ ” screamed the Kairi replica dramatically before sniffling and sobbing out the words “ _he must not LOVE US_.”

Sora grabbed the dolls from Riku’s hand and shoved them back in his pocket.

“Alright fine, _fine_! I’ll make a replica doll of me, just don’t…” Sora looked away from Riku to the ground. Although his face wasn’t visible, a blush was apparent on his ears. Riku’s heart nearly stopped before he realized Sora wasn’t blushing from anger or embarrassment, but from trying to hide an uncountable amount of laughter.  “Just don’t make those voices again!” Sora looked up with a huge grin on his face and his eyes full of tears from trying to hold himself back.

“Alright, okay. I get it.” It was Riku’s turn to blush as he scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Sora was laughing uncontrollably now and was almost in tears before he picked himself back up and turned his attention to the tree that was to become the subject of his next project.

“Well,” Sora said. He turned to Riku, flashing his big blue eyes and his silly grin up at him. “Better get started!”

Because if there was one thing they had in this desolate darkness…

…it was time.

 


	4. Sora

Sora whittled away on a piece of wood Riku had gathered for him. He couldn’t help the lazy smile on his face from his prolonged laughter. Riku was always teasing Sora playfully no matter the occasion, but sometimes he could get just a little silly as well. There were times where Riku could be serious, and he usually was, but he figured his silliness accounted more for his personality. Sora was a dork 24/7 though, so he never gave something much more thought than it required or should have required.

The warmth of Riku’s body against his back as he leaned over him was comforting in the coldness of the Realm of Darkness. It was decided that, since Sora needed both hands to carve, he’d be fine if Riku still kept his grip on Sora somehow. Riku’s hands lay on the tops of Sora’s shoulders as he leaned over to watch him work at making a replica doll that look more or less like the boy who held it. Sora felt Riku lean closer for a better look through the darkness. It was hard to work enough as it was, what with the lack of lighting, but Riku’s position over him was a bit embarrassing and a blush of red crossed his face and deepened over time until Riku was able to see it on his ears.

“Sora, you okay? You’re shaking a little.”

“Well of course I am! It’s embarrassing—I’ve never carved anything in front of anyone before.”

“Should I move?”

“No! If you do—”

“I know. Don’t worry, I’ve still got you.”

Sora felt Riku’s body leave his back for a moment and a small tinge of panic began to settle into his skin, but Riku’s hands did not leave him. Instead, they slid across his shoulders and into the hood of his jacket. He felt his hood be outturned, and with a hand still hanging onto it he felt Riku’s back settle against his. With his friend’s eyes no longer on him he was able to be a little less self-conscious about his work and continued to carve, his blush subsided and his hands no longer shook—as much.

“Thanks, Riku.” Sora paused and laughed, feeling to strike up a conversation while he carved, now that any awkward eye contact and distractions were out of the way.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just, those _voices_ you did.” Sora laughed again.

“H-hey! I can be funny sometimes.”

“I know. You’re always playing pranks and joking around.”

This time it was Riku’s turn to laugh, and Sora felt his strong back shake against his. “Like when I said we’d name the raft _highwind_.”

“ _Pfft_ , yeah. That name would be better suited for an airship than a small raft like ours. Oh! Or that time you wanted to race me and said that the winner would share a paopu with Kairi, and of course who would win but you.”

Riku was silent for a while and the only thing that echoed through the corridors was the sound of wood being shaved, but that too, stopped when Sora received no reply from Riku.

“You didn’t…actually want to share a paopu with Kairi, right? That was…a joke, right?”

“Sora, remember when you lost? I went and I got a paopu, and I wound up giving it to you anyway.”

“So you weren’t going to share one with her in the first place?”

“Nope.”

“T-then you gave _me_ one. Does that mean that…you wanted me to—”

Sora stammered and his face flushed a deep red. He was sure Riku could feel him quivering against him, but the thought was just so embarrassing.

“Y-you wanted me…and Kairi to—to—“ By this point Sora was blubbering and his words came out so, “R-Riku! You’re such a good friend!” Then he dropped the act and his voice became low and serious as he whispered a snide remark toward his friend, as if there was someone around who could possibly listen in. “But Riku, isn’t that a bit weird? Hooking up your two best friends? I mean, I appreciate it but it kind of makes you seem like a…pervert.” He whispered snidely over his shoulder so Riku could hear him clearly.

“Sora.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re such a dork.”

“Hehe, I know.”

“But really, did you ever give that paopu to Kairi?”

“Nah. Actually…it might sound cheesy, but I think even without some destiny intertwining fruit, Kairi and I will always be connected.”

Riku could hear Sora’s words through a smile and he got back to work on his replica doll. It was coming along nicely despite the lack of light, and the conversation he’d just had had gotten him thinking about paopus, so the body turned out a rather nice star shape like the others.  The hair was difficult as the wood wasn’t exactly soft and the points came out rather jagged. And with those messy points, it was remarkable how similar and spot on the hair was to his own, but he did rather wish he was working with softer wood. For a finishing touch he carved the shape of a crown into the torso. He didn’t have anything to paint it with at the moment. He’d carved a sun into Kairi’s doll and carefully painted it a beautiful purple. And the black painted straps on Riku’s doll had all but faded over the years but he shrugged the lack of paint and turned toward the real Riku behind him, whose hand was still in his hood.

Riku’s hand flowed naturally from his hood to his hand without ever taking his touch away. Sora was thankful how careful Riku was at making him feel safe, and there was nothing he would’ve asked more of him at the very moment. Except perhaps…one thing. Sora looked at the doll that had come into existence because of the boy in front of him. His eyes moved from the doll to Riku’s eyes and then his lips. Sora’s voice was low and serious and caught his friend a little off guard.

“Riku…”

“Y-yeah?”

“I need you to do something very important.”

“Sure…just name it.”

“I _need_ you to do a voice for the Sora doll!” Sora whined.

“What!? I thought you were gonna ask for something serious!”

“This _is_ serious.” Sora said again in a very serious tone before breaking back down to a whine. “ _Pleeaaase!_ Riku, the other ones you did were so _good._ ”

“You told me to never do them again!”

“Only ‘cause I didn’t want to die of laughter. _Pleeaasse_.”

“Fine!”

Riku snatched the doll away from Sora and moved it around while he spoke. His voice was winey and high pitched and Sora could’ve sworn his doll had been given a higher voice than that of the Kairi doll.

“ _Riku! You pervert! Riku, don’t name the raft highwind! Riku, stop it_!”

“Riku stop it!” Sora cried, almost at the same time as the doll. The action warranted a big grin across Riku’s face while Sora pouted and blushed, clearly trying not to laugh himself but clearly still upset about his mockery. Sora reached for the doll and Riku held him back with a well-placed foot that pressed against his torso. It was an awkward position, no doubt, as Riku tried to get farther, Sora begged to get closer all while the two tried not to let go of each other’s hands. “I do _not_ sound like that!”

“ _I do_ not _sound like that_!” Riku made the doll say. “See? It’s practically you.”

“It doesn’t sound a thing like me!”

“It sure does look like you though. You got the hair perfect.” Riku inspected the replica closer, turning it around in his hand. The two of them had relaxed their position and Sora checked his chest for a foot print. “Yep, it’d look _exactly_ like you if it weren’t for the weird black wood you used.”

“It’s the wood you told me to use.”

“ _It’s the wood you told me to use_.”

“Riku, stop it!”

“Hey Sora…are you saying I gave you wood?”

“Riku, you pervert.”

“ _Riku, you pervert_!”

Their laughter echoed down the dark halls as they played with the small replicas. They reenacted scenes from their island, from their childhood, and from the would-be future. Riku was insistent that he would marry Kairi for sure, but it was almost certain that he was saying that to tease Sora. There was no way to count the minutes or hours they spent together, but lost in each other’s company none of them really cared about the time anyway. Preoccupied on each other, neither of them noticed the living shadows far off in the distance. It blended away in the darkness. It was coming closer.

Sora and Riku figured they’d had enough of playing, and more than enough sleeping, though the darkness was perfect for it, they did not feel like wasting all their time. Riku suggested to Sora that they get walking and look for Kairi, to which Sora enthusiastically obliged and the two of them had set off hand in hand into the never-ending darkness. The further they wandered the colder it seemed to get and their island clothes were nothing to combat the chill of the air.

“R-Riku. It’s k-kinda c-c-cold.” Sora chattered out. He did have a jacket, though it was short sleeved. For a while now, Sora had been trying not to complain about the cold, seeing as there was nothing he or Riku could do about it, especially since he might be better-off than his friend who was sporting a muscle shirt that did not come with sleeves, not even short ones. But he did have muscle, and Sora began to wonder whether or not that kept him insulated or not. After hanging on this thought for a while, he decided that it did keep him warmer and that it was not fair that Riku should be warmer than him even though he was dressed more modestly, and took to complaining again.

“ _Rikuuuuuuu._ ” He whined. Riku stopped, which Sora didn’t expect, and he hoped he hadn’t annoyed him too much. He saw Riku’s hand reach behind him and he felt the hood of his jacket come down onto his head, pressing his stuck-up hair down against his forehead. When he tried to look up he was greeted by the warmth of Riku’s body, his free hand still pressed firmly on top of his hood.

“I’m not entirely cold, but I don’t have a jacket I could give you anyway. You’ll just have to settle for this.”

“This is fine, I guess.” Sora mumbled. It’d be awkward if Sora hadn’t been about a head shorter than Riku, as his neck was stuck in a looking up position as he did not expect Riku’s sudden embrace. But he was getting uncomfortable and wiggled a bit of room so he could move his head back down. The bridge of his nose was pressed against Riku’s chest and he could feel the beat of his heart through his clothes. It was strong like the rest of Riku and he pouted because it was no wonder he always lost to Riku in races and battles. When Sora’s body temperature had become the same as Riku’s he pushed him away and the two began walking again.

“Riku, you have muscles.”

“Thanks for noticing.”

“No, I mean, how did you _get_ them?”

“It’s because it takes a lot of strength to put up with you all day.”

“Oh ha-ha.”

Riku came to a sudden halt and when Sora kept walking confused he felt a firm pull on his arm and was brought back about a foot. He nearly bumped into Riku—not that it would knock the guy over. He was wondering what was going on, but the answer soon became apparent as he followed Riku’s gaze to the road ahead.

Or rather, the road a head that _would_ be there. A large gap broke the path and even as hard as Sora squint his eyes, he could not see the other end through the darkness. A cold shiver settled back into his skin as he turned toward Riku for an answer.

“We’re going to have to find another way around.”

“What are you talking about? There’s only _one_ path.”

“Then maybe this is the end.”

“This can’t be the end!”

A loud grumbling sound erupted behind them and a shadow cast over them in the dark where they stand. Sora and Riku whipped their heads around to be greeted by a monstrous figure that towered over them. Its wings were sharp and of the devil and its thick black locks tangled around its face leaving only a pair of bright yellow eyes to stare them down. Most peculiar, though, was the torso, as a large hole lay gaping through it. A hole in the shape of a heart.

There was nowhere to run. The path ahead of them was gone and the path behind them was blocked. Sora’s hand was squeezed tight in Riku’s grip and Sora tightened his as well, fearful as to what might happen if they let go at this moment. Both of the boys stood still, frozen where they stand in the cold darkness.

For a while, the shadow did nothing but stare them down. It looked from Riku to Sora to Riku again and lifted a great clawed hand above its head slowly, as its mass seemed to slow it down some. Sora could feel his heart pounding in his chest strong and hard and he felt Riku’s hand tremble in his own. That was the most terrifying part of the moment—that the one who’d been so strong for so long would show any sort of weakness in front of him now.

The hand of the monster came down fast, gravity acting hard upon its large appendage. Sora tried to run forward but was stopped. He looked back to see Riku had frozen in place. His mouth hung open in fear of the large creature and his eyes were wide with horror. Sora cried out for Riku but it was almost as if he couldn’t hear him.

The shadow over them became larger, the claw quickly approaching. Maybe it was just the spur of the moment, or maybe it was the hero in Sora acting on its own accord, because one thing’s for sure, that hand never hit Riku. As Sora had pushed him out of the way, he stared wide-eyed into his friend’s eyes which held a fear that he’d never seen before. Their fingers that were to never be untangled loosely came part as Riku fell into the abyss beyond the broken path while Sora stayed left behind.

The pain was unimaginable and the cry that left Sora’s mouth was horrific. It echoed off the distant walls of the dark cavern as the large black claw tore through Sora’s body. He swore he could feel it inside him, taking everything that he was away. In one swell swipe the shadow had entered and left his body. Still intact, Sora clutched his hand to his chest while his eyes fell heavy along with the rest of him. He came to his knees at the edge of the broken path, falling forward after the friend whose life he hoped he had saved. And how he hoped that he’d saved him.

He wasn’t sure if it were the darkness, or if his eyes had merely fallen shut, but the fact that he couldn’t see Riku was distressing. Sora’s hand went cold as the lingering touch of Riku faded.

He panicked.

He was falling.

He was drowning.

 


	5. Kairi

It was night time in Traverse Town and anyone who knew better were in their houses and or shops at this hour. They didn’t dare wander out into the open, at least not alone. During the day, many stayed close to crowded areas and stuck to the main streets. They knew not to venture into alley ways and the second and third districts of town, for fear of the darkness that lie there

The first district of Traverse Town was the safest, but even at this time of night there was no one on the streets, save for the two foreigners who did not yet know the rules of the town. Their fuzzy shadows moved from yellow street light to soft yellow street light. There was no corner of the town that wasn’t somewhat dimly lit in one way or another. Where there weren’t street lamps, there were candles that the townsfolk had let burn shamelessly into the night. The candles’ lights flickered off the high walls that towered around the town, shielding them from the outside world—or rather, shielding the outside world from them. There was just enough room above the walls to where one could see the stars—billions of worlds twinkling far beyond.

Heavy foot after clumsy waddle, the two strangers and their pet could be heard trudging through the night, their footsteps echoing through the empty streets, stopping only every now and then to gaze upon the stars whose positions seemed to change each time they looked. It must’ve been the exhausting adventure of searching they’d been doing that was playing tricks on their eyes, but it was certain that when the taller stranger placed his eyes to the sky for another countless time that the rumors of which he was told about were indeed true. Frightening to think of, he had hoped they weren’t. He pointed to the sky, still in shock and disbelief, alerting his smaller friend of the happenings far beyond them.

“Look Donald, a star’s goin’ out!” His manner of speech was a bit goofy, although he was often one to come to conclusions himself and find the most important of clues, he was not named ‘Clever’ but instead called ‘Goofy’ among his friends and acquaintances. His partner, Donald, was very aggressive and reckless, and though he cared very much for Goofy and his king, the one who had sent them on this mission, it was very hard to tell at times.

However, this was not one of those times. As a world in the sky that many called stars twinkled into oblivion, the worry began to appear upon Donald’s stern face.

“Come on. Let’s hurry.”

Donald, Goofy, and their dog, Pluto, quickened their pace, turning their heads left and right and up and down as they walked, searching for some character they could interrogate in this empty town. They stayed closer to the main streets and left alone the dark alleys, hoping this would better their chances of running into someone.

“Where’s that key…” Donald muttered and crossed his arms.

“Hey, ya know, maybe we ought to go find Leon.” Goofy said as they headed up the stairs in the direction of the accessory shop. The road split off into two ways—the way to Leon’s house, and the way down a dark alley. While Donald didn’t reply he stuck sternly with Goofy’s suggestion and headed down the road to Leon’s, however it wasn’t until Goofy witnessed Pluto stick his nose to the ground in the other direction that he stopped and called out to Donald.

“Uh, Donald. Ya know, I betcha that…”

“Aw, what do you know ya big palooka?” It was the third time that Goofy had changed his mind about directions and where they should be going this night and Donald was going to have none of it this time around, and seeing as how they hadn’t found what—or rather, who they were looking for, Donald decided he was going to choose a road and stick to it.

“What _do_ I know? Hmm…” Goofy pondered for a second and shrugged, following Donald toward Leon’s and calling for Pluto to follow.

Pluto continued on into the darkness of the alley. The high walls cast a shadow over the area so that not even the light of the moon shown into the place. The dog kept his nose low to the ground, lest he lose his sense of sight through smell. It was cold and he stopped to sneeze for a moment. Something beyond him stirred in reaction to the cold wetness from his nose. Pluto followed suit, sniffing out a person who sat fallen on the ground. They were wet with darkness and smelled not of this world. Pluto pushed his head against what he sniffed out to be an arm. A small groan was received in reply and Pluto took this as an invitation to wake his new-found friend. A wet tongue to the face stirred the young teen from slumber.

“Where…am I?” A small voice whispered into the dark. Kairi could hear the soft panting of the dog next to her and felt around for the soft fur of the animal to give her some reassurance. “Do you know where we are?”

Pluto pushed his head into her hand, forcing his loose collar into her grip. Kairi took hold as Pluto began to lead Kairi out from the alley and into the light of the main street. She looked up in wonder at the new world, turning her head in all directions to take it in. Her grip loosened on Pluto’s collar and she felt him tug away.

“Hey, wait!” She called out, but it was too late. Pluto ran off in an unknown direction, leaving Kairi alone in the middle of the town’s square. The sound of Pluto’s paws drifted off quietly into the night. Kairi put a hand to her chest and wrapped her small fingers around the pendant that hung from her neck. “Hello?” She called out. There was no answer. She took her hands from her necklace and cupped them around her mouth. “HELLO?” She cried out loudly. So loudly, in fact, that it had caused her slight pain in the back of her head, pressure on where she had gotten hurt earlier. “Ow...ow...” She rubbed the back of her head as a dark voice called out from behind her.

“You shouldn’t be yelling out to the darkness like that.”

“Huh?” Kairi turned around, a man clad in leather stood a few meters away. His brown hair pointed just past his shoulders and he carried a large sword upon his shoulder. He was intimidating, to say the least, and his dangerous aura caused Kairi to take a step or two back from him.

“More importantly, you shouldn’t be alone. They’ll come at you if they find you by yourself.”

“Oh? Then why are _you_ out here alone then?” Kairi’s voice was shaky and on guard, but she tried her best to keep up an attitude as to not show her nervousness. The man smirked and bounced the blade upon his shoulder.

“I think I can manage if I run into them. You on the other hand…Where did you come from?”

“I should be asking you that! Who are you?”

A third voice intruded on the conversation. It was high-pitched and cheery, a girl’s voice, and it was friendly, much unlike the low, brooding voice of the man.

“Come on Leon, don’t you even know your manners? You always introduce yourself before asking the names of others, _especially_ to a lady.”

The girl had short black hair and was dressed in stealthy but agile gear. Bouncing her way over to Kairi, she took her hand in hers and shook it with much vigor.

“I’m The Great Ninja Yuffie! And that over there with the raincloud is Squall.”

“ _Leon.”_ He interrupted and shot a glare toward his female friend. Yuffie was about to shoot a teasing glance toward him but stopped suddenly and quickly directed her attention toward Kairi, her small hand still between both of hers.

“Wait, if you’re here that means…” Yuffie’s face became full of worry as she turned back toward Leon.

“It means things are worse than we thought. A lot worse.”

The way the words left Leon’s mouth reminded Kairi of something else a friend had said. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep from shaking and mumbled under her breath. “So, you mean…I’m not supposed to be here?”

“No, you’re not.” Leon said. Kairi’s eyes grew wide as tears threatened to break free. It was rare that she felt unwanted, yet this entire night had made her feel so. A large hand took a place on Kairi’s shoulder. “It’s too dangerous to be out here alone. We need to get you inside,” Leon said protectively. Yuffie took Kairi’s hand and she relaxed a bit knowing her two new friends were only trying to look after her.  “You’re lucky you’re not the keybearer.”

“The what?” Kairi asked. Yuffie chimed in with an answer.

“The keybearer! If you had the keyblade on you then those nasty heartless would be coming at you like… _hyaa_! _Kya_! Like this, and that!” She made quick hand jesters and kicks. They were precise and certain—it was easy to see why she had a title like ‘The Great Ninja.’

“H-heartless!?” Kairi’s first question wasn’t really answered. In fact, Yuffie’s response had raised more questions than Kairi had had initially.

“Yuffie. It’s not safe to talk here,” scolded Leon.

“Right, sorry.” Yuffie turned to Kairi, miming a zipper across her mouth and giving a wink. “We’ll talk more when we’re at the hotel—“

“Yuffie!” Warned Leon, not wanting to shout out their hideout’s location for the darkness to hear.

“Right! Yessir!”

As Yuffie gave Leon an understood salute she turned her attention to the road ahead of them. Kairi couldn’t help but laugh. Leon and Yuffie reminded her of her friends, Riku and Sora. That’s right, she needed to find them. Or at least…one of them. She tried not to think about what Riku had said, and if she did, she tried not to dwell on it. She didn’t understand, they had been friends for so long. Why would he just—

No. It’s best not to dwell on it.

The hotel was in the second district—not too far in, but Leon and Yuffie kept a close eye on Kairi with their weapons drawn the entire way there. In the room, Kairi sat on the bed and waited for the other two to start explaining as much as they could. She wondered if they were waiting for her to ask her questions. The room was quite for some time. Leon leaned against the wall closest to the door and Yuffie made her way over to Kairi and began speaking.

“It’s amazing the heartless didn’t get to you before we found you. Like I said, just be glad you don’t wield the keyblade. If you did, they would’ve found you even if you were quieter than a mouse.”

“The keyblade…you keep mentioning it, but I have no idea what that is.”

“You really don’t know much, do you? Where did you come from anyway?” Yuffie said, dodging the initial question.

“I came from…”

Kairi couldn’t remember her home town. She couldn’t remember anything from before she arrived at the Destiny Islands. Her appearance was what made Sora want to visit other worlds, “along with any other worlds that are out there!” Sora would have said. She remembered the words clearly, it was some of the last ones she’d heard him say before their islands were torn apart and lost to the darkness. She wondered what he’d think if he were here with her now. Another world.

She had spent her day gathering supplies with Riku, because although it was Sora’s job, he was nowhere to be found until more than half the items were gathered. She knew she would find him snoozing down on the beach, he’d been slumping around for the past few days looking like he was going to fall over at any moment. His thoughts must’ve been scattered. It was immediately after he’d tried and failed to describe his dream that he asked her, in a completely unrelated manner, what her hometown was like.

“I’ve told you before,” she said to Sora, “I don’t remember.”

“Nothing at all?” he pressed.

“Nothing.”

“You ever want to go back?”

“Well, I’m happy here.”

“Really…”

“But you know…I wouldn’t mind going to see it.”

“I’d like to see it too. Along with any other worlds out there! I want to see ‘em all!”

“So what’re we waiting for?” Sora was about to say something, but Riku had cut in.

“Hey. Aren’t you guys forgetting about me?”

In the hotel room, Kairi shook her head. Why did such a lovely memory make her so uncomfortable now? Why, why, _why_? She was so uncertain. Those last words—what did he mean, back in the cave?

“I think we lost her, Squall.” Yuffie giggled. Kairi had been staring off into space for quite some time.

“That’s Leon.” He corrected.

“Listen, you keep using these terms like I’m supposed to know what they mean! What’s a keyblade and a keybearer, and what’s that got to do with these heartless things?”

“Well…I mean…” Yuffie shot nervous glances around the room like Kairi _wasn’t_ supposed to know what those terms meant. “Leon?”

“She’s obviously not from around here. She’s probably seen as much as us, probably more. Probably been through as much as us too.”

“Yeah, _probably_.” Yuffie said with her hands on her hips.

“So, she has a right to know as much as us!” The atmosphere became heavy as a seriousness clouded the air after Leon had raised his voice. Kairi sat with her hands in her lap, waiting for any information she might be given.

“The heartless…” Leon began, “those without hearts.” Yuffie sat on the bed next to Kairi. She knew the information that was about to come was very serious, very secretive as well. Together she and Leon explained the situation.

“The darkness in people’s hearts—that’s what attracts them.”

“And there is darkness within every heart,” Leon furthered.

“Have you heard of someone named Ansem?”

“Ansem?” Kairi whispered, the name settling in her mind.

“He was studying the heartless,” Yuffie continued. “He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report. We could show it to you, but not even we have it. Its pages are scattered everywhere.”

“How’d they get scattered?”

“Too many worlds,” answered Leon. “But, there’s someone we know who’s searching for them.”

“That’s where the keyblade comes in,” Yuffie chimed in, happy with permission to answer Kairi’s question at last. “They need it to find the pages, the ones that were hid by the heartless.” Leon took his turn with giving information.

“The heartless have great fear of the keyblade. The catch is they’ll keep coming after the one who was chosen to wield it, no matter what.” There was a long pause. Kairi was glad they summarized the situation so shortly, it gave her time to ask the other questions that had arisen while they talked.

“So, you have to team up with the keybearer, so he can help you find the pieces of Ansem’s report. And then you’ll know about the heartless. And once you know about them…you can get rid of them?” Yuffie looked anxiously at Leon.

“Well…yes and no. It’s not really that simple. The heartless are related to the darkness somehow, and that’s what’s really important.”

“The…darkness?”

“It’s what swallowed your world.”

“Wait! How did you know my world disappeared?” Kairi stood to her feet and looked between Yuffie and Leon. Their eyes didn’t meet as they had their heads down, looking at the ground. It was a while before Leon finally spoke.

“Because it’s what swallowed out worlds too.”

 


	6. Riku

The fall was long and endless, and yet the impact was surprisingly long as well. Riku’s back was softly placed on the cold ground below him, as though gravity had slowed in force the further down he fell. Riku checked his body for bumps and bruises and found none; he was completely unharmed. He wondered how that could be, especially since he’d almost been attacked just moments before. How was he unharmed?

“Sora!”

Riku cried out. Sora had pushed him out of the way and he’d fallen off the path. Riku was safe. As for Sora… Riku began searching around frantically. This deserted level of the Realm of Darkness was brighter than the one before it and as Riku’s eyes adjusted, it became apparent why. Soft, sparkling white snow—it reflected what little light was down here and lit up the whole underground area. Snowflakes as silver as his hair drifted past his nose and settled themselves onto the ground with the other billions of flakes. Riku lifted his head to the darkened sky and looked up at the ledge where he had fallen.

“Sora!”

Riku cried again. Amongst the darkness he saw something. The figure above him fell slowly, just as he had. Riku jumped to his feet to get a better look. His dear friend, Sora, drifted down, a few meters above where he was standing. Desperately, trying to catch him, Riku threw his arms out in front of him, his eyes locked on the boy above. Sora fell just a few inches above Riku’s touch, his face was pale and his body was limp with his head was thrown back to reveal closed eyes and slightly parted lips that Riku knew had last called his name. The only thing Riku could say in return was an apology, which came out small and soft like a whisper. The words had only just left his lips, and their skin had just barely met before Sora disappeared.

There was no where he could go in this darkness, yet each end of his body had vanished into small white lights that twisted around each other, flying up toward the darkened sky before fading into the nothingness that surrounded them. Riku stood still, his eyes wide and staring, trying to comprehend the situation. The only thing he could understand was that Sora was gone.

“W-what?”

Riku’s hands began trembling, his black gloves shaking visibly in contrast with the white snowy ground. He stared down at his hands, where Sora had just been. He was just here, he had just seen him, so how could he have just, just—

Snowflakes that fell onto Riku’s gloves immediately melted when they touched the hot, salty droplets that slowly drifted from his eyes to his hands. His tears, too, were affected by the change in gravity down here. They fell in slow motion, and Riku could’ve sworn they had stopped moving completely, stuck hanging in the air between his face and hands. The world had stopped moving. The world had stopped making sense. Riku dropped to his knees, the blow of impact absent from below him as he buried his face into his palms.

“Why?” He whispered, his breath was shaky and the words were distorted and hardly audible. He felt the cups of his hands fill themselves with tears, and more than just his eyes became wet. Now, his cheeks, nose, and chin were hot with an abundance of tears. He bit down on his lower lip, only to be greeted by the taste of that salty solution that layered his face. He didn’t wipe away his tears, he didn’t try to pull himself up to his feet, he just cried, as he positioned himself underneath his own, swirling cloud of guilt.

He had been so excited to take the raft with his friends and travel to new worlds. He had been so ready, so prepared, after ten years of waiting and dreaming he was finally going to do what he had always wanted to do. He remembered when he’d first told Sora of his plan to see other worlds. He had been playing around near the dock, listening to Sora has he told of a tall tale where a monster lived in the crawlspace just behind the waterfall.

“It’s true! I saw it with my own eyes!”

“You sure you didn’t just hear it this time?” Said Riku, doubtfully.

“What difference does it make? There’s a huge monster in there I tell you!”

“All right. Suppose there really is a monster…think we can beat it by ourselves, Sora?”

The two stared on toward the darkness of the crawlspace. Sora was pumped and ready, while Riku had just followed along from habit.

“No problem. Let’s do it! Listen! There! Can’t you hear it growling?” Sora exclaimed, his voice echoed into the small cavern and disappeared into the dark corridors beyond him. The cave returned with a low growling noise that excited the two boys further. Riku was interested, but couldn’t hear much over the sounds of Sora shouting. He shushed his friend and leaned into the howling entrance. The two suddenly became serious and Riku shushed his friend once more, fearing that there might actually be a monster inside.

“We’ve gotta be careful,” Riku warned

The two cautiously explored ahead. The cavern walls touched just above their heads, if they were any bigger they would’ve had to crouch or crawl. The narrow tunnel lead into an open area and suddenly the two were in awe. The dome-like structure above them was lined with large boulders and rocks that were held together with the roots of the island’s trees. A loud howling sound swept past them, they were frightened, but there was no sign of a monster from which the sound could’ve come.

“See that? It was just the wind making that noise.”

The two should’ve been relieved to know there was no real danger, but Sora was rather disappointed that their adventure had been cut short by reality.

“Aw, man!” cried Sora, “I wish it was a monster.” He threw his hands behind his head, but as his eyes locked on a structure to the north he decided not to give into defeat so easily. “Hold on! What’s that over there?”

It was a large wooden structure that look much like a door. Riku walked toward it, the structure seemed to tower taller and taller over him the closer he came to it.

“A window, or maybe a door?” Riku said. It looked so much like a door of some sort, he thought it might lead to some new unexplored area of the island. Riku tried his luck at opening the thing, but it didn’t move in the slightest, and after a while his hands began to hurt, he wondered if he could take up wearing gloves so he could accomplish more tasks around the island, but for now just a few tugs was enough to turn his absent calloused skin different shades of pink and red. “It won’t budge.”

“Geez, is that really all that’s in here?” Sora seemed bummed. He looked around, searching for something else entertaining, but he wasn’t the only one who’d fallen bored, Riku also seemed let down by the unexpected turn of events.

“What do you expect in a boring place like this?” Riku said in a pout. He was just as upset as Sora, but didn’t want him to know, especially since his current mood was already bringing his friend down, which was the last thing he wanted to see. “Hey Sora,” Riku started, trying to cheer up his friend. Sora turned toward him, interested, before Riku continued. “When we grow up, let’s get off this island. We’ll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!” It was a deal, but as of now, Sora was still bored.

“Sure, but isn’t there anything fun to do _now_?”

Riku thought for a moment about something fun he and Sora could do. They’d explored the entirety of the island together and Riku tried to think of anything new he might know that he could share with Sora. Just then, the thought struck him, he and Sora had explored the island together, but it’d be an all new adventure if they added one more person to the mix!

“Hey, you know the new girl at the mayor’s house? Did you hear…?”

As Riku dug is hands into the cold ground under him he finished the thought in his mind. “…I hear she’s our age.” His friends, Sora and Kairi, his two best friends. He shook his head loose from a few tears that fell slowly to the ground below him. If he’d never had this strange ideal of leaving to other worlds… Kairi was complacent about being on the islands, never once did she want to leave, and yet Riku used her as an excuse to leave. Look where that got him, he thought.

_Look where I am because of it. I can’t even see where that got Kairi…and Sora…_

Riku brought a hand down to his chest, which in all his straining from crying had begun to hurt. He started to struggle with his breathing. He took in a sharp breath and let it out in the form of a scream.

“ _Why_?”

“There’s no need to shout.” Said a mysterious voice. It was melodic and though it sounded very relaxed it made the listener somewhat unnerved.

“Who’s there?” Riku shot a sharp glance around his shoulder, but there was no one there. “I said, who’s there?” He shouted again, this time in the opposite direction.

“Now, now…I just said there’s no need to shout. No need to strain yourself. Especially after suffering _such_ a loss.”

Riku was turning his head in every direction, furiously checking for the source of the voice. He even looked above him. His eyes were on the sky when he heard it again.

“Who was he? A friend perhaps? Probably no one important if they would lose themselves to such a weak heartless, and so quickly too.”

Riku shouted at the sky, angry by the words the voice had just spoken. “Who are you?”

“Who, me?”

The voice echoed of the nonexistent walls of this place. It sent chills down Riku’s spine as he clenched his jaw, looking about different parts of the sky.  The voice didn’t say anything for a while, and since Riku had been expecting it to give out its identity, the continued silence only tested his nerves further.

“Come out!” He shouted.

“I will not come out.”

“What are you, afraid?” Riku asked, trying an attitude to hide his uneasiness.

“I am not afraid.”

“Then why don’t you show your face?”

“Then _you_ will be afraid.”

The last line of the voice didn’t echo. It didn’t trail off the walls, and it didn’t sound disembodied. It did, however, send more chills down Riku’s back, ones that made his hands sweat beneath his gloves and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in a direction that he quickly turned his head toward. He could see a shadow that stood in its own, strange patch of darkness in this strangely lit area. Riku called out to it but it did not budge.

“I said, show your face!”

“It must be boring, being trapped here in the darkness like this, especially when you’re _all alone_.”

A bout of pain shot through Riku’s chest. The words crippled him. The moment they were muttered they’d stolen all the breath inside his body. Riku’s eyes were taken off the empty darkness and lowered themselves to the snowy floor. He waited until he regained his breath, and as he did as he began to see it in the form of foggy puffs in front of him. He tried to keep his cool, but couldn’t help the feeling as he sucked in his lower lip between his teeth. All that could be heard was Riku’s small, forced breaths as he pushed to keep his breathing at a normal rate. He raised a hand to his chest and clutched the cloth that he found there. His back had just begun to hurt from all the strain when he heard the voice again, in front of him, clearly.

“I can help you find him.”

Riku’s head shot up in the direction of the voice.

“I can help you find everything that you’ve ever lost.”

“You can?”

“Yes…all I ask is that you help me in return.”

Riku narrowed his eyes, he wasn’t too sure what the figure might want in return, but he was willing to give up anything if he could have Sora back with him and find Kairi. The tension in his body was released upon the thought of being back on his island with his friends, and his hand lowered from his chest as he straightened his posture and looked straight ahead, sternly.

“Where do I start?” he said.

“Look behind you, child. For the path had lain there all along.”

Riku turned his head, slowly, and looked upon the ground behind him. Laying directly on the ground ahead of him was a small figurine that had wedged itself between the blankets of snow. He picked it up and turned it over in his hand. The charcoal wood was familiar, its shape like the one he had lost and was determined to find. His vision shifted to another figurine that lay on the ground just ahead of where he had found the first one. He picked up the doll, its smooth wood familiar, as the one he had abandoned and was determined to get back. There should’ve been one more…and there was, as Riku looked on, he laid eyes on the third figurine. Its old wood nearly came off in the roughness of his grip, and it was familiar as well, although he hardly knew it, as the one he was destined to become. Its wood was rotten and had blackened in places, especially around the chest area. The small indents where the eyes had been had long since eroded away. He placed the other two dolls in his pocket, but kept the doll that resembled him in his hand, turning it over and over. It seemed different than the one Sora had carved for him long ago, and as he kept examining it closer and closer he couldn’t help but feel as though it was losing its familiarity.

He narrowed his eyes in a strange feeling that overcame his body. He didn’t know what it was, but as it was making him uncomfortable, he did not want to think about it and shoved the doll into his pocket with the others. Startled, Riku took a step back as something emerged from the ground in front of him. He tightened his grip as whatever shadows and darkness came up twisted and tied themselves together the same way they had when they’d taken him from the island. He was scared, though he wouldn’t admit it. He was scared, because he wasn’t sure where the darkness might lead him this time. He was scared, because he didn’t know if he would ever come back from it. He was scared, because he wasn’t exactly how much he should trust as voice without a face. He hesitated, long enough to elite a snarky comment from the voice behind him.

“What are you, afraid?”

Riku turned his head and smiled. He looked behind him, directly into the darkness where the figure stood.

“I am not afraid.”

Long strips of darkness snaked their way out of the portal and Riku extended his arm to greet them. He walked along with their tug as they pulled him into the portal ahead. He took a deep breath, clenched his teeth and locked his lips, desperate not to let the darkness enter him, and in return, Riku entered the darkness instead.


	7. Roxas

_It was dark…so dark I thought I might drown in it. I felt like I was losing myself, being carried away by the waves that dragged me further and further past the point of no return. But I remember something…something...what was it? Oh, it’s light._

The boy’s eyes fluttered open to a bright room. Everything was white but the figure standing in front of him, dressed down in a black coat. He was leaned over him, his bright green eyes beaming down into his, as if he had been waiting for him to wake up.

“Rise and shine, Roxas! We’re supposed to meet in the round room today.” The man was casual with his speech and talked fluently through his hands as he hung over the boy on the bed who blinked a couple times before parting his lips to speak.

“Rox…as? Is that me?”

“So, you can speak now! I was wondering when your lights were gonna turn on.” He tapped the side of his own skull. “Took you long enough, I’ve been dragging your zombie-like carcass all over the castle for the past week. It’s been a week right? Seven days? Time flows so differently here compared to the outside. Don’t know if we’re goin’ fast, or they’re goin’ slow.” He stopped to think which gave the boy time breath and come to his senses.

He felt like he’d been sleeping for an eternity, or at least a week like the man had said. Roxas… Was that his name? It sounded so unfamiliar, he must’ve gotten confused with someone else. He took a few deep breaths to wake himself up and rubbed his eyes open. His body felt light, but his head was too heavy—it hurt. The pounding sensation in his mind was enough to make him want to close his eyes for another seven days—maybe more.

“So you remember your name, how about mine?”

The boy didn’t necessarily remember his name, he’d honestly just learned it, but he was too tired to argue. His eyes slowly closed as he searched his mind for the man’s name. Picturing his long face, his lean composure, his casual smile and attitude…it was on the tip of his tongue. He remembered.

“Lea!” He shouted, louder than he would’ve thought to. The man looked at him wide eyed and stunned. Did he get it wrong? His stomach grumbled at the awkwardness, stiff in the air.

“How did you...?” Just then another man came knocking on the door, he was leaner than the one in front of him, older too, with a sunken face and long platinum hair.

“Axel! Quit lollygagging. Did you not hear? We’re supposed to meet in the round room today. Hurry up, and bring Number XIII with you!” He snapped. Thirteen? Was that him as well? He thought he was Roxas. He shut his eyes, the pain in his head growing.

“Anyway,” Said the man with red hair. “Name’s Axel, got it memorized?”

“Ax…ess”

“—el!”

“…el.”

It’d taken a lot of energy to pull him out of bed and down the long blank hallways. Nearly every step made Roxas feel as though he was about to fall over. When they reached the meeting room, a loud voice boomed overhead. There was a man sitting on a chair, too high up on the rounded wall to be seen. Other people entered the room, only to disappear into a corridor of darkness they summoned and appear seconds later on their chair, each higher than the other. They looked impressively high, and Roxas thought that if he had to get on one of those chairs he might fall off.

“Good tidings, friends. At last we have been joined by our long-awaited thirteenth member. They keyblade’s chosen...Number XIII, Roxas.”

Roxas shook his head. All this unfamiliarity, these new words that he had no clue what they meant. Keyblade? It…sounded familiar enough, though he was sure he’d never heard the word before. His hands grew clammy and it was then he looked down to notice he too was wearing a long black coat like the man, his hands sweating inside dark gloves. And it wasn’t just them, each and every other person in this place dawned the uniform. The older man appeared before them, the one with the long blond hair. He came close to them, looming over the two.

“My, my. If it isn’t the keyblade’s chosen, Number XIII.” He tried his hardest to be cool, yet Axel took Roxas by the arm and shuffled passed him, triggering a lecture from the older man.

“How dare you ignore me!”

“Ah? Huh? What?”

“When you pass by one of your elders, you are to acknowledge them with a proper greeting! That’s just common sense, don’t you agree? Don’t you?”

“Oh Vexen, hi…haven’t seen you in a while. I thought you’d gotten yourself killed.” Axel said snidely before walking off. Vexen grumbled something about Axel. Something about Axel thinking he was better than the rest because he’d been chosen to look after the keybearer. Roxas still didn’t know what this meant and tugged on Axel’s hand, wanting to ask him a question about it—a few actually.

“What is it, boy? Have to use the restroom?” Roxas shook his head, he was having a hard time getting out his words, even earlier the only sounds that came from his mouth were broken and slow. He raised his free hand and pointed to himself.

“Key…”

“Uhh…right. You’re the keybearer. It’s your job to—” More bodies shuffled into the room. There were three in total and they were even more obnoxious than Vexen.

“Yo! Mister babysitter!” Called one.

“Shut up,” Axel called back.

“Ugh, this is so annoying.” Groaned the second.

“Axel may look like a tough guy, but he’s really a big softy,” claimed last one. Axel grumbled and picked Roxas up, setting him on the lowest of the chairs. It looked so big against his small body, it almost made him look like a doll or a puppet of some sort.

“Now c’mon and sit down. Don’t fall!” Axel said noticing Roxas’s dizzy behavior.

“Key…” Roxas said again, and Axel nodded. Two figures across the room were murmuring to each other, their eyes fixed on Roxas.

“Number XIII still isn’t fully conscious?”

“It’s not surprising, but at least he’s up now, not locked away in his room sleeping.”

“This is actually the first time I’ve seen him…I didn’t expect him to be so small.”

“I believe it’s just because you’re built like a tank, Lexaeus.”

“But he is quite young, almost your age, Zexion.”

“Almost. He’s a few years younger than I am.”

“But it’s not just his age that makes him different, I heard that unlike the rest of us…he doesn’t have any memories from before he became a nobody.”

“Oh? No wonder it’s taken so long for him to wake up. And although he’s walking around now, with no heart and no memories…it’ll take some time before he learns how to react to anything.”

Lexaeus and Zexion made their way to their seats through a single corridor of darkness, they appeared on a couple of chairs next to each other, their eyes looking up towards the superior. They waited calmly for him to begin his speech. When he did, he spoke clearly and without hesitation. His voice boomed around so that all in the room could hear him.

“Friends. This is a momentous day. I am pleased to announce that a new comrade has been chosen to wear the coat. Number XIV… Let us all welcome one of the keyblade’s chosen.”

Roxas was the keyblade’s chosen, and he was the thirteenth member—so fourteen? There was a fourteenth member with the same ability? The superior couldn’t have been mistaken, could he?

There were whispers of the fact that two new members had joined only moments apart, and how odd it was that they were both keyblade wielders, but no one seemed to mind much as this was obviously something great for the organization. Standing there, in the middle of the round room, was a small figure, draped in the familiar black coat. They had their hood drawn and their body shape was, although small, very ambiguous, so it was hard to tell whether they were a boy or a girl.

Everyone clapped, their black gloves slapping together for the new member—everyone except for Roxas, who sat still and lifeless in his chair. “Number XIII and Number XIV have been blessed with a great power, they are able to wield the keyblade. I’m sure you all know what this means for us…” There was much cheering involved in the meeting, yet Roxas had zoned out after a few words. So there was another keybearer besides him, and they looked to be Roxas’s own age. Roxas only snapped back when he heard Axel call his name.

“C’mon Roxas! Man, this was easier when you were asleep.” Roxas wanted to respond but the only thing he could do was let out an incoherent jumble of sounds. This prompted a sigh from his care-taker. “Weren’t you listening to _anything_ Master Xemnas said?” Roxas slowly but surely shook his head, bringing out another long sigh from Axel. “C’mon, I’ll explain on the way.”

“C’mon…” Roxas breathed, and Axel blushed realizing just how many times he’d said the phrase today. The boy felt uncomfortable, like someone was watching him, and he turned his head, meeting a pair of yellow eyes just before rounding the corner.

“One last time—your name is Roxas, the thirteenth member in the organization, so get it memorized.”

“Key…”

“Uh…right, you hold the power to the wield keyblade—which is mucho importante. You see, Organization XIII—that’s us—are a group of nobodies—the better nobodies I might add, which means none of us have hearts, so none of us have feelings. In order for us to behave like—like someone with a heart—we act out emotions based on the memories from when we were human. In all of us—except maybe you—there’s just one thought that we all have in common. It’s what brought us all here to this castle, and that is ‘I want a heart’. With a heart, we’ll finally be able to feel real again.”

“Key…”

“I’m getting to that. You see, the keyblade is the only thing that can release hearts. While the rest of us can fight off the heartless—uh, the things that hold the hearts—we can’t release the hearts they hold, so they just keep coming back and coming back, and _man_ , is it a pain. So that’s where you and that new member come in. With those trusty keys of yours, we’ll finally be able to complete Kingdom Hearts—the thing that’s gonna give us hearts of our own. So with your key—your uh…Roxas, where’s your key?”

“Key…”

“Yeah,where is it?”

To be honest, Roxas head no idea what he’d been talking about this entire time and he sure had no recollection of ever owning a ‘key’ of any sort. He pointed to himself again, shaking his head and muttering the word ‘key’.

“You’re like a broken record, aren’t ya? Let’s see if we can’t get some help with that.”

They spent most of the day wandering around, talking to other members. Roxas tried to get to know them but he just wasn’t in the mood. There seemed to be a total of thirteen members, hence the name, “Organization XIII,” though there was a mention here and there about whether or not they’d have to change their name now that there were fourteen members, as that mysterious new member had joined earlier. Toward the middle of their day there was man who’d stopped them that caught Roxas’ attention. His voice was slow and careful, as though he was trying hard to contain something. He was explaining something to Axel and though Roxas kept his eyes on the ground he could feel some off tension growing in the air. It tugged at the back of his neck and soon he felt so uncomfortable he began to shift his eyes around, resting them on the small hooded figure in the corner of the room.

“A mission!?” Cried Axel.

“I can’t have him standing around staring into space all the time.”

“Well, yea…but you think he’ll be okay, Saix? I mean he _did_ just wake up. I know I wouldn’t want to be disturbed with a mission after just waking up.”

“Good, because you will be going with him.”

“What!?”

“Everyone else is busy, you’re the only one left for the job.”

“The _only one_ , huh?” A faint strumming of an instrument was heard behind the three as Axel eyed Demyx, one of their members goofing off with his music.

“Fine. C’mon, Roxas…huh? What’s wrong?” Axel noticed Roxas staring at the figure in the corner.  “You worried about the new kid?”

Axel tugged on Roxas’s hand, trying to get him to follow but the boy stayed still, staring at the new member who swayed along to the tune of Demyx’s sitar. Saix’s brow furrowed, studying Roxas, finding where his gaze was resting.

“Get going!” Saix hissed.

“Hold on a sec,” said Axel. “This is the first time Roxas has shown interest in anything. What was that name again?” He asked Saix.

“Number fourteen, Xion.” He answered. “Remember?”

“Right, I knew that. Got it memorized, Roxas? It’s Xion. Now let’s go!” Axel said as he dragged they boy through a corridor of darkness he had just summoned. It was just as they left through the portal that Saix shook his head, knowing well that Axel hadn’t paid attention to anything master Xemnas had said at the meeting this morning.

Suddenly, both Roxas and Axel found themselves in an empty corridor, it was pale and moving in on itself, the symbol of nobodies floating through currents around them. Axel had to squint for a moment, as he felt around the nothingness with his hand out in front of him. His other hand was wrapped tight around Roxas’ arm. Saix would have his head if he’d lost their precious ‘key’ in one of these corridors, but Roxas stayed in Axel’s grip as began to mutter to himself.

“Now where is… Ah! Here we go.” The corridor warped around him, and a portal of darkness appeared in front of them. Roxas stared blankly ahead. He couldn’t seem to shake that new member from his head, the only word that hung in his mind was their name, Xion. Roxas was having trouble forming any other thought after that first word, and so found himself stuck—both mentally and physically as his mind didn’t have enough energy to move his body.

If he had a heart, it’d be beating so fast.

He thought he might rupture.

His head hurt.

“I can never really follow anything Xemnas says, y’know? Oh, excuse me, I meant _Lord_ Xemnas.” Axel said, off in his own little world. He grabbed Roxas tighter and pulled him through the dark portal as their surroundings shifted around them. It suddenly became brighter than day. The sun filled the entire sky, and not just a single part of it. Its rays stretched across the entire town, lighting every corner—twilight. Roxas gazed off into the sky, the puffy clouds distracting him from the thoughts that didn’t seem to quite fill his mind. The clouds rolled through the blazing sky, creating different distracting shapes that Axel seemed to pay no mind to. He was scoping out the area, looking for something or someone when he finally called out to Roxas, not seeming to wake him from his trance in the slightest.

“Listen up, Roxas. The main mission we have for you is to collect hearts.”

“Hearts…?”

“First you’ll need your keyblade.”

Roxas’ hands began to tingle as the word _keyblade_ ran throughout his mind and his hand became heavy with a large metal key, almost on cue with his thoughts. Its shiny silver shaft sparkled as it appeared in a burst of light, the handle was a brilliant gold that was almost the color of Roxas’s own hair. They key suited him, it felt like an extension of his own arm and so natural to hold, though he was sure this was the first time he’d ever seen the thing in his short week of a life.

“There ya go,” said Axel. “Out of the whole organization, you and Xion are the only ones who can use one of those. That makes you pretty special.”

Roxas face turned red at his last words and he scratched his head. Special? He wanted to shake his head, Nobodies shouldn’t feel anything, right? Still, Axel began to laugh and placed a firm hand on the boy’s back, nearly knocking him forward.

“Are you blushing? That’s pretty good, when’d you learn to do that?”

Roxas’s mouth fell open to answer Axel, but the two questions collided. His knees hurt as he suddenly felt himself on the ground. His key clattered against the ground and his hands gripped tightly at his head and hair.

“Hey what’s going on? Are you okay?”

Two more questions…and Roxas struggled to answer, even in his mind. He felt terribly dizzy and he couldn’t focus on anything other than the pounding sensation in his head, whether it was from the strain of him pulling on his own hair or something else...

“Roxas!” Axel shouted. “Roxas, what wrong?”

Another question that he struggled to understand the answer to. What was going on with him?  Axel kept calling his name.

“Roxas! Roxas!”

But he didn’t feel like Roxas…certainly. It was on the tip of his tongue—his true name.

“…tus.”

Roxas looked up at a blurry mess of fiery red hair. He was sure his eyes were still open, at least a little bit, but for some reason his vision started to grow black in different places. He felt cold.

“Heartless!” Axel hissed.

The sound of whipping flames and clashing metal filled the space they were in, echoing off the nearby towers and back to them and directly into Roxas’s ears. Why was everything so familiar in one way or another? He couldn’t shake it…Axel, Xion, the keyblade, clashing metal, even those yellow eyes he could’ve sworn he’d seen somewhere before. The only thing he didn’t seem to find an attachment to was his name. What was his name? He almost had it. He heard Axel call him once more.

“Roxas, are you alright? I got rid of the heartless but they’ll be back soon enough. Roxas? Can you hear me? Roxas!”

“….ntus.”

“You—do you remember?”

“Ventus.”

Somewhere in the back of his mind the words rang back to him.

_Do you remember?_

It wasn’t Axel’s voice…

Why was everything so familiar?


	8. Kairi

The light of the Green Room buzzed overhead. The silence was deafening and no one spoke. It was taking Kairi a while to figure out what she should do in this situation. She wanted to laugh to herself, or maybe out loud—she was in another world. It’s what Riku and Sora always had dreamed of. Riku and Sora…where ever they were. Maybe they’d gone to another world just as she had. Maybe they were in the same world as Kairi?

“Yuffie, Leon, you’re kinda familiar with these parts, right? This world, I mean.” Kairi asked, patiently. Leon waved a hand in the air to signal his response.

“Well, we’ve been here long enough.”

“Almost ten years to be exact!” Yuffie chimed in. Kairi put a finger to her chin, carefully choosing her words.

“So then you would know when there was someone new in town, right?”

“Just like we knew you were new. Oh! I rhymed,” giggled Yuffie. It was hard to tell when she was serious, with her bubbly personality. She was even gigglier than Kairi, which was a surprise.

“Well, do you know if there have been any other new arrivals, besides me? Specifically, two boys named Riku and Sora.” Kairi waited for their response and Leon returned it.

“Wow that _is_ specific. No one new besides you that we found.” Yuffie giggled at Leon’s rhyme but didn’t say anything after that. “Why do you ask?”

“Just…they were—I mean they _are_ my friends. They were on the island with me when it got swallowed by darkness. I was wondering if those who disappear together get found together.”

“I wish we could help you…uhh…” Leon trailed off and then stopped completely. The three were silent, mostly out of confusion and deep thought. Yuffie was the first one to say something.

“Oh gosh! Come to think of it, we don’t know your name! We even know your friend’s names, but not yours!” Kairi let out a light-hearted laugh. It brought her out from her deep thoughts about the whereabouts of her friends and brought her back to reality.

“It’s Kairi.”

“Kairi…” Leon said, “Now why does that name sound so familiar.”

“You know,” Yuffie said, “I think I’ve heard that name somewhere before too.”

They both took a while to think, but Kairi was certain she had never met either of them. She’d lived on a secluded island since she was four, and before that she doubted anyone knew who she was, she never was one to make a lasting impression. When she arrived at the Destiny Islands, she was a very quiet child, and even now she didn’t have much to say. Kairi wasn’t sure if it was her thoughts getting to her, or maybe it was the uncomfortable atmosphere, but at that moment she was sure she felt a chill run down her spine and to her hands.

A ball of darkness appeared in the room just now. It made a sound like it was trying to suck the light out of the lamp overhead. The sound was briefly followed by the sound of clattering metal, like a suit of armor. A strange creature appeared in the center of the darkness just then, it was shaking and it seemed to be made of darkness itself. It looked directly at her, its bright yellow eyes stood out against its black skin and it seemed to pierce right through Kairi’s body. Her hands were shaking with that chill that had overcame her body earlier. However, she snapped out of it as soon as she heard Leon yell, he was swinging his large blade over his shoulder, looking right at the heartless that had suddenly appeared just moments before.

“Yuffie, Kairi, go!”

Yuffie threw open the red door at the back of the room and Kairi followed suit. She resisted looking back, even when she heard the sound of breaking glass she still continued forward. There was another girl beyond the door in the next room, and while Kairi didn’t get much time to look at her she could still make out a long pink dress and brown hair and she called out Yuffie’s name, her voice was soft and she ran toward the red door and slammed it behind her and locking it.

“What was that?” The soft spoken girl said. Yuffie took a moment to steady herself from the excitement. Kairi was breathing heavily too, although she’d only ran from one room to the next, her heart was beating incredibly fast. Was that the heartless? Was that what they were talking about, the nightmarish creature that stole hearts? Kairi’s own heart was about to jump out of her chest, her hands were tingling so much she had to literally shake out her arms trying to get rid of the feeling.

“A heartless…” Yuffie huffed. “Nothing I couldn’t handle, but we’ve got a princess to protect.” Yuffie winked over and Kairi and she blushed at the compliment…or was it? Maybe Yuffie was just commenting on how damsel-like Kairi was, either way the comment was embarrassing and Kairi began to nervously look around the room. She noticed two figures beyond Yuffie and the other girl, one seemed out of it, stagnant behind the door, and the other was studying him. Kairi watched them for a while, long enough to where the two girls noticed her gaze. The girl in the long pink dress stepped forward and excused herself.

“Oh I’m sorry, where are my manners? My name is Aerith, I’m a friend of Yuffie and Leon’s.” She waved her hand over to the two strangers behind her. “This is Goofy.” The taller stranger stood quite awkwardly, but he seemed to be rather mannerly. He turned his attention away from his friend and tipped his hat toward Kairi. She returned his gesture with a small curtsey, feeling she should return his formal behavior, but she cracked her composure when she made eye contact with the other individual. He was short and stout and his beak was hung open in shock. Goofy waved to his friend. “This here’s Donald Duck.” Donald fell forward onto the ground and groaned as Kairi and the other girls laughed.

“Is he alright?” Kairi asked, not forgetting her manners. At that moment Donald jumped from the floor and shook his head, his feathers looked ruffled and his face was stern. He yelled an awful obscenity that, gladly, no one was able to make out, as his voice was scratchy and ambiguous.

“Who did that?!” Donald shouted grabbing at his bill, rubbing out a bruise there. He seemed to have been behind the door when the Yuffie and Kairi ran through to the other room. Yuffie stepped forward and knelt down in front of him, smiling apologetically and turning her head to the side.

“Sorry about that, Donald. We were in a bit of a rush.” She patted his head in a friendly way that made him jump. He blushed and stomped his foot.

“Oooohhhh,” he grumbled, scrunching up his bill. Yuffie was such a good friend to everyone, there was no way he could ever stay mad at her. A moment or two passed and Yuffie returned to her spot next to Aerith, but they couldn’t help noticing Goofy looking around quizzically at Kairi then back to the girls, to Donald, and then back to Kairi.

“Uh, pardon me for asking but…who are ya?”

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry I forgot to introduce myself, and after you so politely introduced yourself. My name is Kairi.”

“Well, if you don’t mind me askin’ but, did you come from another—“

“WAAAHHH!!!!” Donald suddenly interrupted Goofy, flailing his feathers about. “That’s classified, Goofy!!” Goofy put a gloved finger to his lips and chuckled, making a shushing noise to himself and nodding knowingly before Yuffie chimed in.

“It’s alright boys, Kairi _did_ come from another world. It was swallowed up by the heartless and somehow, she wound up here—just like me and the gang did long ago. She’s from...uhm...” Yuffie looked over to Kairi with wide eyes. “I actually don’t know where you’re from.” Kairi smiled her response, realizing that no one here was great with relaying the most basic of information. “Destiny Islands huh? Never heard of it.” Kairi shrugged and returned the question, asking where Yuffie, Aerith, and Leon were from. “And Cid too!”

“Cid?”

“He runs the accessory shop here, we used to buy from him back at Hollow Bastion all the time.”

“Hollow Bastion? Is that the name of your world that disappeared?”

“Well yes…and no. Yes and no…and no.”

“Another no?”

“Yes.”

“Two yeses and one no.”

“No, just two yeses and—wait, you’re confusing me!”

Kairi scratched her head and motioned for Yuffie to continue. The ninja cleared her throat like she was going to begin a story and the whole room listened in.

“No.”

“So three no’s?” Kairi said, raising an eyebrow. Yuffie cracked herself up with her own joke and waved away the tears from her eye before continuing again.

“Yes, we came from Hallow Bastion, but no, it wasn’t always called Hollow Bastion. Yes, it was taken over by heartless, but no, it did not disappear. They consumed nearly the entire town. By then most people had already left, most not willingly.” Her tone had become more or less solemn, a change from her usually spunky self. The room could see the memories fill her eyes as she spoke. “The only thing left was the castle…and that didn’t matter either because the princess had already disappeared, and the king…” She stopped to sigh. “It used to be so beautiful…it wasn’t Hollow Bastion, it was Radiant Garden—waterfalls and gardens and a town that surrounded the most beautiful castle you’d ever seen.”

“Radiant Garden?” Kairi squinted.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard of it. Unlike your island, Radiant Garden is— _was_ the center of all worlds. People used to be in and out of that world from all different ends of the universe—that is, until the worlds sealed themselves.”

“N-no I don’t feel like I’ve heard of it before but…” Everyone looked at Kairi confused, but the one who looked the most confused was Kairi herself. She had a finger to her chin and her brow was furrowed in the most impossible way. She closed her eyes. “But the way you’re describing it. It’s in my mind, so vivid. I can almost imagine being there.

“Maybe you went when you were younger,” Aerith chimed in, her response of reasoning was rather quick. “Yuffie did say that there were always people coming in and out from different worlds. Maybe your grandmother took you there as a child?”

“My…grandmother?” Kairi thought it was odd that Aerith mentioned a grandmother rather than a mother or father. Her head hurt as she mulled everything over. Maybe she _had_ gone there as a child, she didn’t really remember anything before she came to the island, but before she could ask any further questions, Leon came through the door.

“WAAAAAAHH!!!!” Everyone heard Donald shout and Goofy carefully peeled back the door from a stunned Donald. He unstuck him from the wall and carried him over to the bed where he lay stunned for a few more minutes.

“The poor feather—er, I mean feller,” Goofy said.

Leon didn’t bat an eyelash, instead his eyes fell upon Kairi. He was bruised and his hair stuck up in places it hadn’t before. Aerith looked up at him with her doe eyes, but before she could say his name Leon spoke.

“We have to get her out of here, it’s not safe.” Leon’s face was stern and Yuffie tried to chime in with an optimistic response.

“If it’s heartless, Leon, then it’s nothing we can’t hand—“

“No. It’s not _just_ heartless. They’re getting bigger, stronger, and they’ve been multiplying.”

“Multiplying?” Aerith asked softly.

“They’ve been buzzing about something… I have reason to believe the keybearer is finding, or _has_ found his way to this world. Goofy, Donald, I’m sending you two out to look for him.” Goofy saluted to Leon and Donald jumped up and off the bed. The two marched out of the green room and the sudden silence was briefly followed by sounds of emerging darkness and shouts. Yuffie ran over to the door and looked down the hallway. A bright light came from the hallway, room suddenly felt cold and Yuffie looked back, her face covered in frost and her hair sticking up at the sides. Her teeth chattered into an awkward smile.

“Blue Rhapsody,” she shivered, notifying the presence of an ice heartless. “I think we should go.” Yuffie shook off the frost from her nose as Leon threw out a hand, realizing that the hallway was a no-go, he pointed out the back.

“Yuffie, Aerith, Kairi, let’s go!” Yuffie turned to Kairi and grabbed her hand, pulling her out the back door onto the balcony, the air was cool and the stars were high in the sky. Kairi almost lost herself in them before she got swept from her feet, literally, feeling a warmth around her body. Leon’s large arms were wrapped around Kairi and she felt a large jolt as he jumped off the balcony and landed hard on the ground with her in his arms. Her face was hot, she didn’t expect it, but she understood that they were in a rush and there was literally no other way down. She took a step back, nearly losing her balance but was immediately caught by a soft hand and pulled back to her feet. Kairi looked behind her, a stream of water that lead down into a large grate at the end ran behind her. She looked back up to face Aerith who gave her a reassuring smile, but the girl’s faced turned solemn as she looked over toward Leon.

“Leon…this alley.”

“I know...but there’s no other way to the first district from here since our other way is currently blocked off.” Leon looked to Kairi, explaining the situation as to not worry her or keep her in the dark. “We need to get you to the first district—where it’s safe. We could’ve gone out the hotel’s front door and taken a short run to the gates but now we’re going to have to go all the way around, through the alleyway, back to the second, and then to the first. It’ll be dangerous, so stay close.”

Kairi nodded and clenched her fists. They began to tingle and a shiver ran down her back. Darkness enveloped the group, dissipating into separate balls of blackness, heartless emerging from each one. They were surrounded. Yuffie made the first move, her pointed ninja stars moving quickly through the air and taking out two heartless. The dark creatures twitched uncontrollably and made their way toward the group like stop-motion figures. Leon took out three smaller heartless with one swoop of his sword, clearing a path in front of them. There were four heartless close behind them and a bright light flashed behind Kairi, who looked to see Aerith in a stance of power. Her dress pulled up ever so slightly to reveal her large boots. She put her hands together and gave a large cry, magic erupting from her hands. Several heartless had been vanquished back into darkness, yet their numbers had only seemed to increase.

“They’re not going away!” cried Kairi.

“Let’s go!” Called Leon. Aerith pulled Kairi’s hand, who’d been stuck looking back at the heartless in horror, their bright yellow eyes staring into her deep blue ones. Aerith’s hand was warm from casting magic and it calmed Kairi down somewhat as she was pulled through a small door at the end of the alley that led back to the second district. Her eyes were on the sky as she followed them in a rush. The walls seemed to go up so high around the city, she could hardly see the stars in this district. Maybe it was how fast she was running, or maybe the night was just getting younger, but Kairi could’ve sworn that she saw one of the stars go out.

“Look out!” Called Yuffie. Kairi threw her head back down to the area in front of her. The heartless were larger, darker, and charging right for them. They’d been backed into the corner of the district, and Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith formed a wall between Kairi and the heartless. Each of their backs looked so strong, and as she studied the symbol on the back of Leon’s jacket she couldn’t help but think of Riku and all those times he’d protected her. Her eyes dropped to the floor when she remembered the last time she’d seen him. Shaking her head, she thought this situation was the same—not being in the right place at the right time. Her three protectors charged forward at the heartless, beating them down effortlessly, yet every time they seemed to finish one off, two more would appear in its place. Kairi’s eyes darted back and forth between everyone’s battles. She was so caught in awe it took her a moment to realize that the large heartless that was in front of Leon had disappeared from in front of him into a portal of darkness…and reappeared right in front of Kairi.

“Kairi!” Leon shouted. Her hand became clammy and tensed up. She could feel her heart in her throat. The darkness towered in front of her, cocking its head in different directions, it’s long, claw-like fingers twitching about in different directions. Seemingly, it didn’t have a mouth, but when it puffed out its chest and raised its head up to the sky, a large gaping hole appeared from the middle of its head, opening down to its chest. The most blood curdling of screams erupted from its mouth, shaking a few more stars from the sky and though it only screamed once, its mouth did not close. It stayed open wide and the creature lowered its eyes down toward the fearful girl in front of it…and then, it lunged forward.

“No!” Kairi screamed. She shut her eyes and threw her hands out to block it. She felt her back hit the wall, all the air escaping from her body in a single breath. She felt a sudden heaviness on her and a bright flash of light behind her eyelids. She waited to be clawed to death, to be eaten alive, but the moment never came. Ever so slowly she opened her eyes, light coming from every direction. The world was in slow motion. Leon looked like he’d seen a ghost. Yuffie had just thrown a star, but her wide eyes were locked on Kairi. Aerith was in the back, blasting a heartless with her magic, creating the first of four lights that Kairi had seen. The second light was from her necklace, shining brighter than it ever had before. The third light was from the heartless. It erupted into shreds, popping it like a balloon from the inside out and letting out a shining light. It was a heart. It floated up to the sky, spinning until it vanished into the night above.

The fourth light was from Kairi’s own hands. It was hard to ignore the long bar of solid sheen that came forward from her hands and ended at where the heartless had recently stood. It was a large, silver key, and it had saved her life and unlike the other heartless, this one did not reappear. She heard a voice, clear in her mind. It was a woman’s voice. It was familiar, calm and soft. It whispered the word over and over again in her mind…

_Keyblade…_


	9. Riku

Rushing water. Waterfalls? As beautiful as Riku thought his surroundings must be he couldn’t see them. Not that it was dark, it was just too bright. The world around him burned his eyes with light until they adjusted from being in the darkness. His vision was static for a few moments before the outline of shapes became more apparent before him. The source of the rushing water came from the most magnificent waterfall Riku ever seen. It stretched around him like a wall, crashing down into a smooth pool under several stone surfaces which seemed to float in midair. Riku blinked and rubbed his eyes, sure that his vision hadn’t completely adjusted and his mind was playing tricks on him, but no—there truly was a wall of rushing water around him and floating platforms, each higher than the last. He followed them with his eyes, they were just close enough that he could jump from each one on to the next…and at the top….

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

He still couldn’t see the mysterious woman’s face. She stood at the edge of the highest platform, but the sun was behind her, making her look like nothing more than a silhouette. Maybe that’s all she was…just a silhouette.

“Where are they? Sora and Kairi.”

“Aren’t you ever the impatient one? Remember our little deal? You help me _,_ _then_ I give you back your friends.”

Riku found it odd how she said she would give him _back_ his friends, rather than help look for them.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“What other choice do you have?”

Her silhouette turned and walked out of sight and Riku jumped after her, scrambling from platform to platform in order to make it to the top. They seemed to be getting farther apart as he progressed, each one more difficult to reach than the last, but he was almost there—just three more jumps and he’d be able to see the top.

One.

Two.

It’s not like Riku had missed the third rock. His hand met the side of the platform while his body dangled off the side, and while it should’ve been simple for him to pull himself up onto the flat surface, the rock was brittle along the edges and it crumbled off in his hand. His eyes grew wide as he felt a sudden surge of gravity take him down to the waters below. It was expected that the pool would swallow him, the cool liquid catching him from his fall, however Riku let out a loud yelp as he hit the surface of the water—hard, and it wasn’t just the fall that was hard, it was the surface of the water as well. The water felt like solid ground, but he was sure it was water. It was transparent and rippling and fish swam around in what was should’ve been non-solid water.

Riku’s fists hit the surface of the water, trying to break through it but it didn’t even crack. So, if it wasn’t ice… The floating platforms, the surrounding waterfall that made no splash—it was all clear, yet Riku still found himself shaking his head. It couldn’t be magic? The rocks were probably magnetic and the hard surface of the water was probably just really _really_ thick ice. It definitely wasn’t magic. No, what a stupid thing to believe in. Sure, it was fun to muse over when he was a kid, but there was just no way.

No amount of magic or science, however, could get Riku back up to the rocks above. There was nothing to climb up on and they were too high to jump up onto. Even after running all the way back to the first and lowest rock he saw that even that one was too high to jump up onto as well. Maybe there was an elevator beyond the waterfalls? Probably not, but at least a staircase or a few more rocks would help.

The boy pressed a single gloved hand to the towering wall of rushing water and to his relief, it wasn't solid. The weight of the water rushing down brought his hand down some but he easily pushed his hand through and felt the water stop on the other side. Riku smirked at his cleverness at finding a secret passage-a clearing on the other side of the waterfall. He ducked his head under the water and pushed through. Getting wet was never a problem, his hair wasn't that thick and his clothes weren't too heavy, so he'd dry easily. Plus, living on an island his whole life, he'd gotten used to getting wet when wearing clothes, letting the cool breeze from the ocean waves dry him off.

There was no passage on the other side of the waterfall. There was a clearing, sure, but not the one that was thought would be there. Space. It had to be outer space. It was swirling and beautiful, yet terrifyingly empty and vast save for a few specks of far off light that must've been other worlds. Riku gasped in surprise, and then again, bewildered that there was in fact air out here for him to gasp with. Nevertheless, there was nothing out here that could be reach easily, so he pulled his head back in from the unknown.

His hair dripped and the drops fell past his face and shoes and into the peculiar ground below, becoming one with the solid water, one drop after the other. His clothes were wet and he waited for a breeze but there was none, only shade from the towering walls of surrounding water and the floating rocks above. A chill ran down his spine, either from the cold or from the disembodied sounding voice. It echoed, not off the walls of water, but off the walls of Riku's head.

_There is always another way._

Riku perked his head up at the words and turned around. If there was another way he would've found it, he'd searched everywhere in this pit and he was getting frustrated. Still, he clenched his teeth along with his fists, looking for another way. He seethed the word “always” through his lips. If he was going to find Kairi and get back Sora, he couldn't give up.

A high-pitched twinkling sound made its way about and around the waters. With each passing moment, the noise increased in pitch, reaching higher and higher notes until it disappeared beyond the reach of a human ear. The boy stuck a finger in his ear and winced, sure he was hearing things from the amount of stress he'd been through today, but he was sure that wasn't the case when another sound came rumbling up into his open ear. This one was of low pitch, and it didn't travel around from spot to spot it seemed to be centered in one area. Blow the water, curious fish were beckoned toward bubbling waters. Each fish took turns sticking their face to the bubbles, possibly thinking maybe it was food or something other.

Riku shook his head at the absurd thought that fish would have any sort of thought of their own.  _Yet he still refrained from eating them back on the island when he and Sora would go fishing._ While Riku liked to consider himself a strong silent type—though he was anything but a dork when Sora and Kairi were around—he also liked to hold a meat-free diet. Not even the occasional tuna could be found on his plate. This was a fact that Sora still didn't believe to this day.

"No way, your diet has to be pure meat!" Sora exclaimed.

"I just don't like the idea of eating something with, or that used to have its own heart and memories. It's kind of unnerving,” Riku lied to cover his

"But, your muscles!" Sora always thought Riku's figure was a bit unfair considering he'd never seen his friend work out any more than he had, and while Sora remained a bit scrawny, Riku managed to look like a natural Hercules. "What’s your secret? Protein shakes?" Sora then gasped, "Riku, you're not on steroids, are you? You know what happens when you take those things right? Your—"

"Sora!"

"—starts to shrink."

Riku raised an annoyed eyebrow as Sora laughed it up. His friend was always asking him about his muscles and accusing him of ‘cheating,’ whatever that meant. Honestly though, he didn't do much beyond his usual training with Sora, beside a few pushups and what not in the morning and at night—nothing much.

"I don't do anything more than you do besides eat healthier."

"What!? Meat is healthy! Otherwise it wouldn't have such a big section of the food pyramid, right next to cake."

"I think you’re forgetting an entire layer of fruits and vegetables. Also, I'm pretty sure cake is considered a sweet—you know, the things you’re supposed to avoid. C’mon Sora that stuff is nothing but sugar."

"Nu-uh! It’s made with flour, and good stuff like eggs and milk. It's like…" Sora counted on his fingers before continuing, "eighty percent grain and protein."

"Then I guess that makes me twenty percent healthier than you."

Sora growled and playfully jumped at Riku who lifted his arms up. Riku was hoping to grab him and somehow make his way to pinning him in a small, yet victorious wrestling match, but what Sora did instead was jump, not center, but to the side of Riku, grabbing a hold of his arm and hanging from it like a child. Riku held the small boy from his upper arm, flexing to hold him up.

"No way _this_  is just twenty percent."

"Alright, alright, you caught me." Riku said as he thrust his hands into the air, causing Sora to fall to the ground. "I'm not a vegetarian… I'm a vegan." Of course, Riku said this jokingly, and he smiled down at Sora, who grabbed onto his legs, causing Riku to fall in return.

"Liar! Tell me your secret _pleaaase_!"

Riku watched the fish nip at the bubbles. A small, but fond smile formed on his face, reminiscent of the fun times he'd had with Sora. Sora, who he was determined to find and determined to have more fun times with. Suddenly, a fish that'd nipped the bubble got sucked into the spherical air pocket. A loud _pop_ sounded, that caused Riku to jump back a bit before running forward to investigate. The fish rose to the surface of the water, but when it reached the top the bubble did not pop, releasing itself into the air. Instead, it stayed intact, the fish still inside as it ascended into the air, the bubble growing before falling back down into the solid waters below. Riku watched, astounded at what he'd just seen, unable to believe what had just happened before his very eyes, until it happened again, and then again! The fourth time it happened Riku was only inches away from the bubbling pit. He pressed his hand to it and a loud pop passed his ears. He was inside the bubble, going higher and higher into the air before descending back down into the water. He had been told there was another way, and while he assumed it'd be one of those where-you-least-expect-it type deals, he didn't in the _least_ expect that he'd be traveling in a bubble with a fish through some impenetrable waters.

He held his breath as he passed beneath the water's surface, but for some reason he didn't feel any pressure of water surround him. He didn't feel wet, aside from the dampness of his clothes that was already there—no, instead he felt cold and weightless. He wondered if this water was like the space he could breathe in and he took a small breath to investigate. It was air—fresh, crisp, breathable air!

Riku stumbled out of the bubble and onto the rocky ground. It looked as if her were underwater but it felt so…different, like he was on land. A small fish came and nipped his cheek and he shooed it away before standing, brushing himself off and looking for a way up. There was an exit to his far left where towering rocks met him as he entered. They had all sorts of ledges that he could hoist himself up onto and suddenly he was very thankful for the amount of upper body strength he had.

The final ledge approached fast and as Riku pulled himself over the final edge he was met with a beautiful yet unsettling sight. A castle, tall and magnificent more so than anything he'd ever seen. It was white marble and had beautifully, exquisite stain glass windows. There were towers and archways and stairs and intricate designs on the edges of each, but for some reason only half of the castle was like that. The other half was a brass metal, weaving itself through the pearly walls with pipes and crooked towers. The windows were black and whenever Riku tried to look through them, he felt a coldness in his heart. Shaking his head, he noticed that he was on the top rock of the platforms he'd tried jumping from earlier. It was a long way down and he looked onward toward the castle, where it was a long way up.

Stern, he walked onward, splashing through a pond and weaving through beautiful outside hallways that lead to a large gate, half white, half black with a large symbol of what looked like a heart over it. The yin and yang of this place was starting to weird Riku out, but stepping inside the place seemed to be a bit better. The inside matched the outside—big and beautiful. There was a running fountain in the middle of the room and curving staircases on each side that lead up to a second floor and on the ceiling in the middle, a large chandelier that looked almost like one big giant gem instead of thousands of smaller ones. It hung just above a platform on the second floor which must've had several stones or special pillars because the light reflected off of something up there in beams, shining around the room.

He stood there in awe, wondering and waiting for the woman to appear again. When he shouted for her a door on the second floor swung open and Riku rushed up the stairs, pausing for a moment to stare at that dazzling crystal. He entered a library, a two-floor room with book shelves made of brilliant gold that set themselves in mazes around both floors. It was beautiful, as was the foyer, but this room had brass pipes coming from the ceiling, infecting the elegancy like a spreading disease. The windows showed the sky in twilight, even though he was sure it had been the middle of the day when he'd entered. A desk stood in the middle of the room, a book already open on the desk.

At closer inspection, he saw that it was a sketchbook. A child's drawings filled the pages. There were dogs and ducks as well as round eared mice. There were places—mostly castles, and princesses as well—princesses in all situations and manner. Starting from the beginning of the book to the end the child's skill seemed to become a lot better, the drawings made more sense and the people looked more like people. They repeated a lot of the same characters but there was this one girl on the last page who only appeared on that single page and nowhere else. The drawing was good—better than anything he or Sora had come up with in their scribbling on cave walls.

The girl had bright blue eyes that matched her short, choppy hair and outfit. A pink holster crossed her body and tied itself around a skirt that opened in the front, revealing some shorts. She looked like a warrior, not a princess, and her steel toed boots and amour on her upper arms confirmed it. Riku's eyes traveled back up the girl's body to her face as it was remarkable how well the child drawn her features, especially the eyes. The melancholy look in her eyes was realistically uncanny and for some reason it made Riku feel sad. A voice startled him from his trance.

"Glad to see you made it up. I was beginning to worry you wouldn't show."

She sounded like she was pouting.  _How disgusting_ _,_ thought Riku. He felt like this woman was tormenting him in some off way, even though she'd offered to help him. Most importantly, her voice didn't sound disconnected, in fact, it sounded as if it were coming from right next to him. Riku shot a glance up and was met with the gaze of, now a shadow, but a beautiful woman, standing on the second floor, bathed in golden light turned rainbow from the stain glass behind her.

Her lips were full and red and her eyes were brilliant and green and they seemed to fit perfectly on her angular face which was framed with a tight, black leather helm. Atop her head were horns, either part of the helm or part of her head, Riku had no clue. She was draped in a long black robe, the center opening just a bit to reveal a royal purple trim. The collar of her robe came up in a spread like wings, delicate and just off her shoulders. What caught Riku's eyes the most was her scepter, long and brass like the yin of the castle. The crystal atop was bright and green, swirling and catching him in a trance like her eyes.

"I see you've found my child's imagination book. Anything and everything that popped into her tiny little head she just had to scribble down—a waste time if you ask me, but she was a creative little beastie and it's not like you can just ask someone to stop thinking of things to think of."

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked, somewhat furious. It'd taken him a lot of effort to get to this place and he was not in the mood for nonsense—he wanted his friends back.

"You were staring at that book for quite some time—I assumed you were in the mood for stories."

"I'm not in the mood for anything but having my friends back!" The woman didn't seem to hear Riku—or rather, she just flat out ignored him.

"Here's one you might like. It starts out rather nicely too, it goes 'Once upon a time,' I always liked the ones that started out like that. Once upon a time, long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it.”

Riku narrowed his eyes.

“They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived…in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other."

Riku listened to the story, finding it irrelevant.

"Who…who are you?" He wanted facts, not fairy tales.

"I am Maleficent—mistress of all evil, fairy of the darkness."

"A fairy? I don't see any wings."

"I had wings once, they were stolen from me. That's all I wish to say about it." Her face was solemn and as her tone changed to quick her face stayed in a saddened expression. Riku didn't wish to press further, and while he wasn't sure he could trust a mistress of evil she did say she was willing to help him.

"So, I guess there really are other worlds out there…even if they're divided. I wonder if that's were Kairi went. Maybe I'll find Sora in one of those worlds too!"

"My dear boy, your latter friend cannot be found in any other world."

"Wh-why not?"

"Because he's here, in _this_ world."

Maleficent turned and walked behind a bookshelf. Riku ran after her, his eyes wide and his mouth dry at the idea of Sora being here in this castle. There was a single door on the second floor of the library and he pushed through it, running forward and onward, not thinking until he nearly fell off the quick ledge of the hallway in front of him. He looked down, thankful he hadn't stumbled over the edge as it was an insanely long way down. There was a large gaping hole in the middle of the room and it continued like that for several floor levels both up and down. He was sure he'd only gone up three levels, but the bottom of the center had to be at least six floors down.

"It must go deep into this world."

Riku looked up, the ceiling even further up. He sighed, wondering which way to go when a he felt a small bump on the back of his ankle. Lifting his leg, he saw that swirling green crystal that had been atop Maleficent's scepter. It rolled forward and to the edge before rolling right toward a sparkling glyph. When it touched it, it disappeared into a star of light before racing along beams of light to the floor above.

"What's an evil fairy going to get out of helping me?" Riku said to himself before touching the glyph and riding a beam of light to the second floor. Turning into a star for a second made Riku feel kind of warm and tingly. He didn't like it—the split second of turning into a star and turning back to normal felt like disembodying. It wasn’t the same, still, it reminded Riku of being lost in darkness. When he came to he held his head for a moment before noticing that same heart-like shape on the ceiling. Double doors stood before him. He pushed his way through.

There wasn't' a space in the room that wasn't a dirty brass color. The place looked like something straight out of a science fiction movie, with clear tubes on either side of the entrance hall just big enough to hold a person. Furthest to the wall was that heart-thing again. It was swirling with black matter that made Riku's back feel cold. He rolled his shoulders and shook his head, the feeling a horrible one. In the middle of the room was a small figure. Sora lay on the ground, limp like a doll.

"Sora!"

Riku ran up to his friend and grabbed him, shaking him by the shoulders to try and wake up him, but the boy's eyes remained closed, his lips slightly parted as if her were merely sleeping.

"I'm sorry, my dear boy. I did say your friend was here but it seems I may have stretched that truth. While his body may be in this castle his heart is sleeping. I can help you get it back, but it's as I said…you'll have to help me first. You see, his heart was split in two, even though that’s not entirely true. Think of it as a separation."

"A separation?"

"When a heart is stolen from a strong-willed person, like your friend, the heart becomes a heartless, the body becomes a shell—a nobody. But he is a special case indeed. Even though his heart was stolen, he still had another to spear. Oh, but the heart he did lose wasn’t even entirely his to lose. He seemed to have been sharing it with someone else, the poor thing. A heart is something you should never share."

"I don't understand."

"In order to save your friend, you'll have to find the part of his heart that was his own as well as the memories that belonged to it. As well, you’ll need to find the stranger's heart he had let live in his own home of a heart, both the part that belongs to the light, and the part that belongs to the darkness, as well as the memories that belong to both. Lucky for you the stranger's dark heart and dark memories already lie in your arms."

She moved a filed finger to her perfect lips and made a shushing sound.

"They're sleeping. Would you like for me to wake them up for you?"

"Please."

"So polite. Of course, there's just one little thing I need from you."

She took the gem off her scepter and held it in her hand, squeezing it tight until it turned into a putty of black goop. She tossed it to Riku who had no choice but to catch it lest he let it land on Sora. It was warm and pulsed slightly in his hand.

"I need to keep a careful watch on you. So, if you don't mind…" She licked her lips with her tongue and Riku knew she wanted this black thing inside of him. He'd do anything to save his friends. Anything. Even if it meant consuming the darkness he'd tried so hard not to give in to. Maybe he could control it this time. Maybe, if he could, then he can save Sora and find Kairi. He had to be strong. Strong, like how his friends thought he was strong.

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, downing the darkness and letting shadows consume him.


	10. Xion

The room was intricately designed with patterns on the walls, ceilings, and pillars, but it was lost as the entire room was the same color white all around in this place called Castle Oblivion. The only thing that stood out amongst the bright whiteness was a small patch of cream and shadow—skin and hair of a sweet young girl and the towering black figure that stood next to her. The small white girl in a small white dress sat in a small white chair in front of a small white table with a small white book on top. Her hands were limp in her lap and her head dangled from her shoulders in a bored manner. Her hair was platinum blonde and her eyes, though hardly visible behind her heavy lids, were a soft blue. The man that stood beside her stuck out in the room, as he was dressed head to toe in black. His voice was cool and casual, but had some mystery to it, as he spoke vaguely and covered his hair and face with a hood. He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder which seemed huge in comparison to her small frame.  
  
"Naminé, you are the soul keeper of that heart, which is why you must stay here. You know what would happen if you were to leave, don't you?" The girl said nothing in return. She didn’t even nod.  
  
"Good! I'm glad we got that cleared up. Just draw a little more and hang out here. Other members are always in and out to entertain you, right? So, there's no way you could possibly be bored. You like Demyx don't you? Well guess what, it's his turn to baby si—I mean, _watch over_ you today." Naminé was hardly listening to what the man had said this time. Her mind was still on the aforementioned "heart".  
  
"What about…his memories? Without his memories…looking after his heart is useless!" Naminé's voice was soft and it took her a while to form her words, and even as she raised her tone it still remained no higher than a broken whisper. The man gripped her shoulder hard, reminding her who was in charge. His voice took on a stern, quiet tone, which made Naminé whimper to herself.  
  
"The superior has me working on it, so just sit tight and try not to cause any trouble, okay? Tomorrow makes just barely a week, you need to trust me. You trust me, don't you, Naminé?" He loosened his grip on the girl's shoulder and took a lock of her hair in his black gloved hand. As he twirled it around he said her name, sending shivers down her spine and causing the thin hairs on her neck to rise. Suddenly his voice was soft and gentle, but what he said was in no way kind. "You're here to look after that heart—nothing else. You exist for others, so stop being so selfish." He stood, before he could see a tear slip from Naminé's eye. "I have some work to attend to back home. Hopefully today is the day that Roxas wakes up. If he does, then we'll be one step closer to getting that heart's memories. So just be patient, alright? Oblivion knows that that's what I've been doing."  
  
A swirling portal of darkness raised itself from the ground and the mysterious man stepped through it, disappearing along with any trace of the portal. Naminé wept, her tears staining her sketchbook. Her nose was beginning to get stuffy when she felt something soft touch her face and looked up to a tissue, handed to her by the only person she called a friend.  
  
Xion didn't do much, but Naminé found comfort in her presence and would talk to her often. It was nice, even though she didn't talk back. Mainly she just stood in the corner and watched Naminé draw. She'd been there the whole time Axel had been bullying her, but it was just as well he didn't notice her presence, for she wore a white blanket like a hood which made her blend into the walls. Xion parted her lips to speak, though Naminé didn't expect anything to come out. Nothing did, but the thought was kind enough.  
  
"Xion?" Naminé said. It was weird to think Xion had thoughts at all…after all she was just—  
  
"Na…mi…né" Naminé let out a small gasp. Wiping her teas away, quickly, she took Xion's hand in hers.  
  
"Yes, Xion. I'm Naminé."  
  
"Nami… né"  
  
"That's right, Xion." Xion pointed to herself.  
  
"Xi…on." Naminé was crying again, but they were tears of happiness. She was overjoyed to hear Xion speak before her. Xion's finger didn't leave the direction of herself before she spoke again.  
  
"Mem…or…ies." Naminé's smile quickly turned into a frown and she let go of Xion's hand who looked confused.  
  
"I see you understand more than you let on. That's right. Once we find Sora's memories, they will be placed within you for you to hold until we can find Sora's body and merge the two. For right now we just have his heart—you…which means we're very close." Naminé bit her tongue then. She couldn’t tell Xion that once Sora’s heart and body met—Xion would be empty once more. She’d be nothing. Naminé and Xion shared that destiny. Naminé knew that. It hurt her. She couldn’t tell Xion.  
  
"Why…this?"  
  
"That's good question. Why _are_ we doing this? Sora is…someone very special to me—no, to this world…all worlds. For him to meet his fate so early was…like a glitch in the system. It's something everyone is working to recode…" Naminé closed her eyes. "Yes, I can see it. Everyone knows how important he is, some more than others. The people who keep coming in here—the ones in black coats? They're part of something called Organization XIII."  
  
"Thirteen…"  
  
"That's right. They're working harder than anyone to fix this, but they need…me. I'm the only one who can manipulate memories and hearts without a keyblade."  
  
"Key…?"  
  
"The keyblade…Is a weapon of peace, though some have not used it as such in the past. Its original purpose was to be used on children, so that the lights in their heart stayed pure but—"  
  
The door clicked and Naminé put a hand to her lips, shutting herself up before she said something she wasn't supposed to. With her other hand, she motioned for Xion to go back to the corner but she didn't. Naminé stood and tried to push her but the moment she laid her hands on her, the door opened and Demyx walked in.  
  
His blonde hair was spiked on the top, with both ends shaved off, while loose ends stuck out everywhere, each one placed with careful intention. He dawned the same black coat as the other man, but Demyx's was worn looser, baggier and without a hood as he was careful not to mess up his hair with such an addition. In his arms, Demyx carried a large, soft blue sitar with him.  
  
"Yo, Naminé! Long time no see, what's it been…twelve days?" He spoke in a sing-sing-like way and pursed his lips, closed his eyes and hit a single note on his sitar. "You ready to rock toda—"  
  
The moment he opened his eyes to look over to Naminé he stopped speaking. It was obvious he valued his sitar greatly by the way he carried it but when he saw who was standing with Xion, he dropped it to the ground, sour notes rising from it like the sun.  
  
"Wh-who is this?" Demyx said, pointing a single, shaky finger at Xion. Immediately, Naminé stood in front of Xion, her arms outstretched to protect her.  
  
"She's…under my protection…by…Lord Xemnas!" At the immediate sound of his name Demyx tensed up. Xemnas was their superior, first in command. For a moment, Demyx's face scrunched up before he realized…  
  
"There's no way Xemnas would go behind our backs like this. Traitor! Tell me who this is or—" Demyx didn't wait. He struck Naminé to the side, as any member—nice or not—would have. Naminé cried out but that didn't stop him. Demyx grabbed Xion's hood and tugged it back. "No way…you're…" he gazed at Xion for what seemed like the longest time before striking a glare at Naminé. "Traitor! Lord Xemnas will hear about this. We should have never trusted you, witch!" With that, he ran out of the room, grabbing his sitar on the way out.  
  
Vexen, Organization XIII's fourth in command was a scientist, but more importantly a traitor—him and six others. No one but them were supposed to know that they'd already gathered Sora's heart and were keeping it inside a puppet Vexen had created. A puppet named Xion. Naminé was one of the six.

Of the others was Axel, the cool and mysterious man who had talked to Naminé earlier. Zexion and Lexaeus were in charge of gathering information. They stayed in the sublevels of Castle Oblivion, keeping quiet and listening and reading up on prophecies and descriptions of things of dark nature. Marluxia, Organization XIII's eleventh member, was the self-proclaimed leader of the traitor organization. He kept liked to think he kept a careful eye on the others but for some reason he was never there. Larxene was the only female in Organization XIII. She was twelfth in command in Organization XIII, but second in command when it came to the traitor organization. If anyone were to find out any of the six members were traitors, then more than a single plan would be ruined.

Demyx sniffed, coughing, exhausted from running. Xemnas sniffed, something in the air was off. Naminé sniffed, her nose stuffy from crying. Sooner or later someone would come barging in, asking her question after question and she'd have no choice but to answer truthfully, after which they would stamp out her existence and she would forever exist only in oblivion. Xion handed Naminé another tissue when someone knocked on the door. This was it.  
  
Knock.  
  
Knock.  
  
The third knock was more of a thud and the door swished open. It was Axel again. He came in through the door, his hood was drawn but his body read that he was in a nervous state. His breathing was heavy from quickly coming to Castle Oblivion.  
  
"Naminé!"  
  
Axel withdrew his hood. His hair was fiery red and thrown back in bright, crimson spikes that contrasted with his bright emerald eyes. Two tear drops were painted under each of his eyes. What they symbolized was a mystery. Axel rushed over to Naminé, putting a hand on her head. Sometimes it was too obvious he cared about her, but it was his job to intimidate her, lest she try to leave this place. If nobodies had a heart, his would break a little more each time he had to yell at her. He looked over to Xion, her face was exposed from Demyx pulling her hood back.  
  
Xion's hair was short and dark. It framed her face, outlining her soft, perfect features. If it weren't for her eyes being an incredibly deep blue, one would almost say she looked exactly like Naminé. Naminé, like Xion, was a puppet as well, created by Vexen from mere fragments of a heart. Xion's hood was brought back down upon her face by Axel. If anyone saw her face they would know something was wrong.  
  
"Don't say anything. I'll handle everything. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."  
  
The door swung open, a man with bright blue hair past his shoulders walked in. His bangs were swept back and he wore the same black robe as every other Organization XIII member. His eyes were a lurking yellow and he had a large scar across his face shaped like an 'X' which only made his expression seem that much harsher. Saix was the Organization XIII's seventh in command, however, Xemnas liked to treat him like the second in command. He ran all of his errands, was entrusted with all information and aside from Xemnas, he always, always, had the last say.  
  
"What is the meaning of this, Axel?" He seethed out Axel's name.  
  
"Why, this? This is Xion, one of Vexen's creations. She’s just like Naminé. You know what that means? She's very special and can only help us toward our goal." Axel grabbed Xion by the shoulders and pushed her toward Saix who grimaced and stepped back.   
  
"Xion? This thing Vexen has created has a name? Why haven't The Superior or I heard about it?"  
  
"Well, she only finished creation just a few hours—no, _minutes_ ago, we still weren't sure if she worked or not."  
  
"Oh? And what does it do?"  
  
"See for yourself?"  
  
Axel didn't have a plan, but things always worked out the way he wanted to. Gently this time, he pushed Xion, who shuffled worriedly toward Saix. His arms were crossed and he was tapping his toe impatiently. When nothing happened, Saix raised a hand to swat her away like a bug, but just then, Xion raised her hands.  
  
"No!"  
  
"No…way…Impossible!"  
  
The bright room, for a moment, became even brighter, as a white light filled every corner. Axel rubbed his eyes, Naminé stayed staring, as if she'd expected this all along, yet still she sucked in her lip to bite it. Saix had a look on his face, almost of utter terror which soon melted away into his usual composure, however, this time he had a conniving look inside his eyes. What Xion held in her hands was metallic and shiny. It was warm and it sent a thrill of chills through her body. The words whispered themselves through the air.

 _Keyblade…_  
  



	11. Kairi

Everyone rushed to the first district of Traverse town, the safest of all three districts. Here it would be almost impossible to run into any heartless as not a single inch of district one was without some sort of light. However, there were alleys between the buildings, dark and cold, and not to be mentioned by the citizens of the town. That’s where Kairi had woken up.

Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith had gathered in their friend Cid’s accessory shop with Kairi by their side. He had a toothpick in his mouth and messy blond hair. He looked much older than any of Kairi’s new friends and talked with a slow accent.

“Well I’ll be—the keyblade master. I knew ya’ll were out lookin’ for him, but I never actually thought you’d find him, much less that he’d be a little girl.”

“I’m not that little, and I’m no master of the keyblade! I barely learned what a keyblade was a few minutes ago.” Kairi was flustered and still had the key in her hand, Cid’s eyes not leaving the shiny metal.

“Even if it is last minute,” Leon said to Kairi, “you’re going to help us, right?”

“I’m confused.” Kairi said, looking down the shaft of her keyblade. “What exactly is it that you need me to do?” Aerith’s soft voice filled the air as she explained Kairi’s mission should she choose to accept.

“You know there are many other worlds out there besides your island and this town now, right? They were supposed to be a secret, and they were until now, because until now they’ve never been connected. After that, the heartless came and everything changed.”

“The heartless were the ones who attacked us, right?”

“That’s right.” chimed in Yuffie. “The darkness in people’s hearts—that’s what attracts them.”

“And there is darkness within every heart.” Leon’s deep voice took its turn.

“We’re looking for the key,” continued Aerith.

“The key?” Kairi looked down her blade.

“That’s right, the keyblade.”

“So…this is the key?”

“Exactly.” Leon took over again. “The heartless have great fear of the keyblade. They’ll keep coming after you, no matter what.”

“Well, I didn’t ask for this.”

“The keyblade chooses its master,” said Yuffie, “and it chose you.”

“And I’m the one with the key…” Kairi nodded, everything slowly began to sink in. “Tell me what I need to do.”

“The worlds,” stated Leon, “they shouldn’t be connected, but they are, and it’s how the heartless get to them. If we seal the worlds then everything will go back to how it should be.”

“How do we do that?”

“Each world has its own keyhole. If we lock them with that,” he pointed to the keyblade, “then the heartless should cease their thievery of other people’s hearts throughout the worlds.”

“We’re not the only ones who need your help,” said Aerith. “My friends Donald and Goofy have also been looking for the keyblade master. They need help finding their king, another known keyblade master. He’s actually the one we mentioned earlier—the one searching for Ansem’s missing reports on the heartless.”

“Donald and Goofy, I met them, right?”

“Yes they’re…Oh no! I think we left them back at the hotel! We have to go back.”

“Really?” breathed Cid, “Ya’ll just got here, too. I get no company in this shop here at night. Guess I’ll just have to catch ya’ll later.”

“Have a good night, Cid.” Said Aerith, and the four of them exited the shop into the cool night.

“We have to go back to the second district.” Said Leon. “It’ll be a little dangerous, so even though you have the keyblade you have to stay close—you still don’t know how to use it.”

“Got it, I’ll be right behind you.”

There was a large wooden door behind the accessory shop and it took both Leon and Yuffie to push it open. Once it was open Leon yelled for them to go. Yuffie leaded down one side of the district to the building on the side labeled ‘hotel.’ The second district was darker and none of the shops seemed to be open, unlike the accessory shop in the first district. Yuffie and Aerith entered the hotel but Kairi looked back to Leon.

He was blocked by a giant heartless, twice as big as Kairi and almost four times as wide. It was almost a perfect sphere. Leon tried hitting it but his sword only bounced off its gigantic stomach. He wasn’t getting anywhere. With its back to Kairi, she decided to sneak up on it. She swung her keyblade as hard as she could, and it slashed through the heartless in a single strike. It exploded in darkness and the bright light of a heart escaped it, releasing itself up into the night sky, becoming one with the stars.

“I could’ve handled it,” said Leon, avoiding eye contact.

“I’m sure you could have.” smirked Kairi.

They met the other two girls back in the hotel, Donald and Goofy with their weapons out. Goofy had a large round shield out in front of him with the silhouette of a mouse head on it. To compliment it and Donald wielded a cartoonish looking staff, though it looked more like a wand as it was short and stout to match the user.

“How do we know you’re not heartless?” screeched Donald.

“Donald, do we look like heartless to you?” raved Yuffie.

“Yeah Donald,” said Goofy, “You should recognize your friends when you see them. Besides, none of the monsters that I know of look like humans.”

“Oohh…” Donald grumbled, the two of them lowering their weapons.

“Uh, Donald,” Goofy’s eyes trailed to the keyblade in Kairi’s hand.

“I get it, I get it. They’re not heartless, it was an honest mistake.”

“But Donald.”

“Whaaaat!?”

“The key.”

Donald’s eyes followed over to Kairi and traced her arm down to the keyblade. His eyes shot open and his bill dropped wide. He flailed around before Goofy calmed him down.

“We already gave her the rundown,” said Leon. “She’s agreed to seal the worlds and help you find your king.”

“She’d really help us look for the king?” asked Goofy with big, puppy dog eyes.

“Of course. I’m looking for someone too. Two someones to be correct,” said Kairi. “If I help you, will you help me in return?”

“We sure will!”

“My name’s Kairi.” She said, throwing out her hand. “I never told you.” Goofy took it and gave it a good shake with both of his hands.

“You know us, I’m Goofy, and that there’s Donald Duck.”

“I remember. You two are a little hard to forget.”

The three of them smiled and the others in the room nodded together.

“So, to search for our friends we’re going to have to go to other worlds, and then seal them away from heartless, right?” said Kairi. “How are we going to do it? I don’t think I can go the same way I came.”

“We can travel to other worlds on our vessel,” said Goofy.

“Vessel?”

“It’s called the gummi ship! It can get us to any world we want.”

“Alright then,” Kairi looked to all her new friends and smiled at them, knowing she was about to head off. “Lead the way.”

The gummi ship was adorable to say the least—bright orange with yellow highlights. The cockpit was a bubble at the top and the rest of the structure wasn’t all that complicated. The inside was also simple and Kairi felt like she had walked into something straight out of a cartoon. There were two seats and where Goofy and Donald sat. Kairi didn’t see another seat, still she joined them in the front, leaning against one of the seats.

“I’ve never been to another world besides the town we were just at. What are they like?”

“Well they’re supposed to be a secret, but—“

“You’ll just have to see when we get there,” interrupted Donald.

The ship sped through space. They passed far off worlds that looked almost like stars. Kairi and her friends would always watch the setting sun after a long day of adventuring on the island. She always loved the sun and its warmth and she knew Sora was no different. For Riku, however, the setting sun seemed to fill him with a different emotion. He seemed on edge as the sun passed, anxiously waiting for something. He would only settle down when the stars came out, and when Sora and Kairi suggested they head home, he would stay just a little longer. Kairi knew he loved the stars, but she never knew it was other worlds he was looking up to. Did he know they were other worlds? Was that why he would so desperately cling onto the night sky?

“Man the controls, Donald! Or should I say, _duck_ the controls?” Goofy chuckled.

“Be quiet and let me shoot!” screeched Donald.

Heartless lobbed in and out of their vision, behind and in front of asteroids and through the swirling matter that was the space between worlds. They were more colorful than the shadows Kairi was familiar with, but they were bigger, some even larger than the ship itself.

“There are heartless between the worlds too?” Asked Kairi.

“Some use the Realm of Darkness,” explained Goofy, “and some like to travel the old fashion way.”

“Realm of Darkness? What’s that?”

“The Realm of Darkness is uhh…it’s a realm filled with darkness. It’s where the heartless come from.”

“What he said.” Donald quacked, struggling with the controls.

“We’ve never been there, but we here it’s _really_ spooky!”

Donald quacked loudly. His feet were on the deck and he was vigorously handling the weapon controls. Kairi smiled at his silly behavior and offered some help.

“Mind if I try?” Donald grumbled and for a second wouldn’t move his eyes off the window, but when shot a glance at Kairi he met her kind, sincere eyes and he relented and stepped down, crossing his arms. Kairi grabbed the controls, her lip sliding between her teeth in concentration. Her coordination was almost perfect, having learned from hours of watching Sora and Riku spar. Goofy’s mouth parted to reveal his large and square teeth—he was impressed to say the least. One after another, Kairi shot down the heartless that were in their way. She wasn’t using her keyblade, so it wasn’t like they were gone for good, but it was better to get rid of them now so they wouldn’t attack the ship.

The heartless and the asteroids soon died off and a sparkling world came into view.  It was brimming over with sand, peculiar architecture scattered around it. Goofy drove the ship in for a landing and Kairi prepared herself for a new and interesting world.

The sand was nothing new, Kairi had lived on an island almost her whole life, but the architecture was beautiful. It was something she had only ever seen in story books and movies. They approached a large building made of pillars. They guarded by giant stone soldiers, their swords crossing over the entrance. The three made their way forward, a soft breeze unsettling the sand beneath them. The inside the building was small, no bigger than the shack back at the island. There were trophies lining the walls and a door at the end of the room that was roped off with a closed sign which no doubt lead to what the huge exterior was for.

A small stout man was polishing the trophies, but upon closer inspection he seemed to be half goat as well, brownish-red fur covering the lower half of his body.

“Excuse me?” Interrupted Kairi.

“Well it’s about time, do you know how long I’ve been—“ He seemed to have been waiting for someone, but disappointment washed his face as he stared up at Kairi, who obviously not who he was looking for. “Now what’s a kid like you doing at the colosseum? If you’re here to watch the games they won’t start for a while.”

“Games? What games?”

“You tellin’ me you haven’t heard about the _games_? All of Greece knows about them. You must not be from around here, kid. The games are where heroes of all shapes and sizes come to compete for the ultimate title of hero.”

“Well, can I compete? I’ve been told I’m supposed to be some kind of hero, but unless I test my strengths I’ll never know what I can do.”

“That’s right,” said Goofy, putting his hands on Kairi’s shoulders. “Kairi here’s a keyblade master—she’s gonna get rid of the heartless!”

“Heartless you say?” Said the man, putting a hand on his round hip. “We got a mess of them here, but you can’t get rid of them! They’re important training for our heroes. You can take a whack at them if you want, but don’t go getting rid of all of them—not that a runt like you would be able to.” Kairi wrinkled her nose at being called a runt. Sure she was small for her age, but being called so by someone even smaller than her was a little insulting.

“Well, training would be a good idea before I seriously go up against anything big. Mind if I give it a shot?”

“Phil!” A voice called from behind the rope. An energetic guy with curly orange hair leaned through the doorway. He was the picture of a perfect hero with thick muscles and almost god-like facial features. “I finished with my training. I think I set a new record!”

“Hercules, rule number thirty-five: you’re never _finished_ with training.”

“Phil, who’re you talking to?” asked Hercules. Phil motioned to the three with the cleaning cloth still in his hand.

“This here’s the new recruits, uhh…”

“I’m Kairi, and this here is Goofy and Donald.”

“Nice to meet you Kairi, Goofy, Donald,” smiled Hercules, his perfect teeth glimmering at them. “Are you here to train with Phil?”

“Yep! I’m going to be a hero soon, so I need to start learning what I can to get there.”

“Phil is really going to train you? I was only joking.” Hercules turned toward Phil. “Phil, I thought you were only supposed to be training me.”

“You know I’m not one for handouts, Herc, but who am I to deny a lady?” Kairi blushed at the comment. “I’ll train you side-by-side and give you each pointers. Herc, you can help her out too, seeing as you’re her superior in all this.”

Hercules groaned but relented at Kairi’s smile. She couldn’t remember having any sort of charm when she was younger, but she had gained favor several times since she began her adventure. Back on the islands, before she met Sora and Riku, she was on the edge of being labeled an outcast. She may have been the mayor’s daughter, but she was the mayor’s _adopted_ daughter. There wasn’t anything wrong with Kairi other than her strange situation, so the others picked apart whatever they could find. Whether it was how she was smaller than the other kids, or how she was quieter than the other kids, or how she didn’t seem to even go near the other kids at all. Her size, her demeanor, her friends—or lack of. They even made fun of her red hair. But she found herself in Riku and Sora. If they could find a friend in her then she could find a friend in anyone else. And she did—in Yuffie and Leon and Aerith and Cid. Not to mention Goofy and Donald. And now Phil was going to train Kairi to be even stronger. She was going to be a hero just like Hercules. Kairi eyed Hercules’s red hair. She was starting to like other worlds.

“Thanks for helping me Phil, Hercules.” Kairi smiled. She meant it.

Kairi was sweating soon after training began. Phil wound up giving her more pointers than Hercules because unlike her, Hercules didn’t have a weapon. Phil gloated about having trained lots of heroes in the past, and it was obvious with how fast Kairi was progressing, and having Hercules train by her side motivated her to be better. If she was going to find her friends, the king, and get rid of the heartless, she would need to shape up. She thought about how Sora and Riku used to fight against each other. They always seemed to be having fun, but training was hard work, and the keyblade was beginning to feel heavy in her hands. Kairi dropped to her knees to take a breather and Phil came up to her, handing her a towel.

“You’re doing good, kid. Here’s a towel, you need anything else?”

“Yeah, I was wondering if you could tell me if anyone else has passed through here—two boys about my age, and someone who calls himself a king.”

“Not that I can remember. I’ll keep an eye out for them though.”

“Thanks Phil.”

Donald was impatiently tapping a foot at the doorway.

“Don’t you think we’ve spent enough time here? We need to hurry and find the king! Aren’t you looking for your friends too?”

“You’re right, Donald. I got a little carried away, but thanks to Phil and Herc I think I’m getting the hang of fighting. I can go to the next world with confidence!”

Goofy and Donald gasped and covered their mouths, Kairi having mentioned something confidential.

“I didn’t hear anything.” Said Phil. “Get out of here, kid. I’d invite you back to join the games but I just don’t think you’re ready yet.”

“Feel free to come and cheer me on though,” said Hercules, waving to Kairi. She smiled and nodded at them, thanking the two again as she, Goofy, and Donald headed out.

The gummi ship was right where they left it and Kairi took no time in finding a water bottle and chugging it down. She finished it with a satisfying sigh and looked toward Goofy and Donald who were already setting course for the next world.


	12. Riku

Riku’s entire body ran cold with shivers as he downed the darkness that Maleficent had given to him. It exploded inside of him, reaching outside his body and enveloping him in darkness. It suited him quite literally, changing his clothes into something sinister. A black and blue suit ribbed his body, tracing the muscles down his arms and back. The emblem of a heart formed on his chest. He clenched and released his fists in the air, feeling powerful and free. Little did he know he was now more trapped than ever.

His mouth dripped with excess darkness, drops of the black matter landing on Sora’s face. It pooled and grew until it covered his face, his body, just like it had done to Riku’s. It dressed him in an outfit like his, but red and black instead of blue, veins reaching out from the center of his chest instead of a heart. Curious however was his hair. As the darkness left him it seemed to stay in his hair, turning it from a light brown to a pitch black. Sora groaned and his eyes fluttered open, bright yellow and as piercing as the rising sun.

“Sora, you’re awake!” Riku touched his face with his hand but Sora sneared and shoved him away.

“Who’re you?”

“Sora, what are you talking about? It’s me, Riku.”

“I don’t know any _Riku_.”

“What’s wrong with you? Did you suddenly lose your memories, Sora?”

“That’s _not_ my name. It’s Vanitas.”

“Vanitas…?”

Maleficent’s voice interrupted the confusion.

“I told you, my boy. What you held in your arms was the darkness that was in your friend’s heart. He is not Sora, but rather a bug that had gotten stuck inside, like a spider in a ceiling light. Sora’s heart is scattered. You’d have to find _all_ the pieces if you wanted to bring him back.”

“Alright then, help me find them.”

“I’ve given you the first part of your friend’s heart. Now you help me find parts of mine.”

“You’re missing parts of your heart?”

“It’s not my heart that’s missing, but out there are seven pieces of one that I need to acquire. Help me gather these pieces and I will help you find the other parts of your friend.”

“And Kairi too.”

“Yes, and your little princess too.”

Riku and Vanitas stood side by side listening to Maleficent’s story and the request that went along with it. She explained that there were seven Princesses of Heart, young girls that would open a ‘door,’ though she didn’t explain that part. She said it was important that the door be open though, she repeated that a lot. The princesses were scattered throughout several worlds and Riku, with the help of Vanitas, would need to bring them back to this castle.

“I’m looking forward to this,” smiled Vanitas.

“Are you really all that interested in what this woman has to say?” asked Riku.

“I couldn’t care less about these so-called princesses, but she said she’s going to get the other pieces of my heart back. I may have failed last time, but this time…this time for sure.”

“What are you talking about?”

Vanitas ignored Riku, and instead turned up toward Maleficent.

“When do we start?”

“The sooner the better, my boy.”

“Maleficent,” called Riku, “How do you expect us to get to other worlds?”

“Why, the same way you came to this one. Both of you have the darkness inside of you and can call upon it at will. Use these corridors of darkness to travel between worlds.”

“Where do we go? There are hundreds of worlds out there. You don’t expect us to check each and every one for a princess that may or may not even be one of the Princesses of Heart, do you?”

“Trust that the darkness will lead you to the correct worlds. This task should be easy for you. I’ve been trying the last ten years to gather them, but I am too suspicious of a character, and a princess is a princess, I couldn’t get anywhere close to one. In the past, I’ve had help, but I have been alone until now. You only have to gather four, did I tell you? I’ve already contained three of the seven princesses. Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, all mine—I mean, ours.”

“So, I suppose after every two princesses we bring you then you’ll give me the next part of my friend?”

“Precisely. Now, the first princess I need you to get for me is Princess Jasmine. She lives in the world—the city of Agrabah. Careful though, one of my ‘friends’ there is quite fond of her and won’t let you leave with the princess so easily.”

“We’re on it.” Riku and Vanitas said together. They turned and Vanitas stuck out his hand as though he knew what he was doing. Riku followed and together they summoned up a corridor of darkness. Riku stepped through, looking around and seeing he was in a blank space, symbols of nothing swirling around him.

“Again,” said Vanitas. “Focus this time.”

Riku bit his lip and they opened another corridor. A hard wind blew out from the darkness and it took some bit of strength for them to walk through. The two of them stepped into a bright world, the sky devoid of clouds, the sun shining hard, and an Arabian city standing tall in front of them. Vanitas marched straight down through the city, people on the streets turning their heads.

“Where are you going?” asked Riku.

“The palace. Where else are we going to find a princess?”

“You’re right, but don’t you think we could do things a little less conspicuous?”

“You act like you’re used to kidnapping people.”

“What are you—we’re _not_ kidnapping someone.”

“Sure, sure.”

Vanitas jumped onto a crate on the side of a random market stall. The shop owner called out but he just waved him away and climbed his way on top of the building. He didn’t look back at Riku as he continued upward. Riku followed him with his eyebrow furrowed. Was Vanitas really part of Sora? How could someone like him have lived inside his friend for so long?

It was quite a way to the palace, but they took a straight and narrow path there without any detours—one of the perks of traveling by roof. The buildings were close enough together that they didn’t have to climb back up and down, and duck in and out of alleyways between buildings. They finally reached the wall surrounding the palace, Vanitas leapt from a nearby building onto the wall. He stuck his arms out on either side of him and balanced on the brick as he made his way along the top of the narrow wall.

 Sora never could have done this. He was too much of a ditz. But Vanitas looked like he was having fun—putting one foot in front of the other, he acted like he was giving a gymnastics performance. In that regard he sort of was like Sora. Vanitas felt Riku’s eyes on him, and he smirked and showed off by performing a flip on narrowness of the wall. He turned back and smiled a snarky smile at Riku who’s upper lip twitched in an irritated response.

Vanitas was annoying in a way that Sora wasn’t. He couldn’t tell if that made him more or less pleasurable to be around. Riku’s back ached from an unconscious tension he didn’t bother letting go. His skin felt tight with darkness.

The two boys made it all the way around the back of the palace where a garden flourished.

Vanitas and Riku crouched down, perching on the wall like gargoyles. They overlooked the luscious garden, the only one in this entire desert of a city. Trickling water sounded from below. A beautiful girl sat on the edge of a large fountain. She was petting a tiger, docile under her touch. She hummed a sweet song as she ran her fingers through the tiger’s beautiful orange and black fur.

“That must be Princess Jasmine,” Said Vanitas. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t know about this, Vanitas. Are we really about to kidnap this poor girl? She’s no more than a year older than me.”

“Riku, look at me.”

Riku turned toward Vanitas who promptly spat in his face. Riku doubled backwards and almost fell off the wall. He wiped the spit off his face but stopped, seeing that what was on his arm was not saliva, but darkness instead.

“What the—“

“Don’t wipe it off Riku, or I’ll be forced to kiss you.”

“What are you, joking!?”

“You wear the darkness like the suit, but you have yet to give into it. You make have downed the darkness that Maleficent gave you, but you do not yet embrace it.”

“And what are you going to do about it?”

“You haven’t noticed? I _am_ darkness. My heart and soul are made of nothing but pure darkness. If you embrace me, you embrace the darkness.”

“Why should I listen to you?”

“What choice do you have?”

The words seemed familiar in Riku’s mind. He didn’t want to trust either Maleficent or Vanitas, but Maleficent was trying to help him, and in the end, Vanitas was part of Sora. Vanitas was smiling in a sinister manner, patiently waiting for Riku to finish his thoughts. When Riku nodded Vanitas licked his own hand, coating it with a thick layer of darkness. He rubbed it against Riku’s cheek in an almost violent manner, massaging the sticky substance into his skin. Darkness enveloped Riku’s face and neck, choking him. He coughed and strained until finding a moment where he could take in that desperately needed breath. When he did, the darkness entered him, a calming sensation overtaking his body.

“You good, Riku?” asked Vanitas.

“Couldn’t be better.”

Vanitas and Riku exchanged dark smiles and jumped down into the garden in sync. Princess Jasmine looked up as they walked toward her, her tiger immediately on guard. It bared its teeth and charged. Riku only smirked and waved his hand, a portal of darkness opening in front of them. It enveloped the tiger in an instant, and as the portal disappeared, so did the tiger. Vanitas turned toward Riku with a raised eyebrow.

“Nicely done,” he said. Riku didn’t take his eyes off the princess, who was now shrieking.

“Who are you!?”

“Why, haven’t you heard?” started Vanitas, “We’re your new body guards. We’re here to protect you. You’ve heard of the monsters, haven’t you?”

“M-monsters?”

“You know, like the ones...right behind you!”

Black balls of darkness swarmed the air, dropping low to the ground, gaining shape and turning into what Vanitas had said earlier—monsters. They were jagged and shared the dark red and blue color scheme that both Riku and Vanitas wore. Their eyes were a piercing red and they slowly made their way toward the princess. She jumped up from the fountain and ran toward the two, gripping onto Vanitas’s arm. Riku turned toward him with an approving glance, mimicking his words from earlier.

“Nicely done.” he said, and the two were swallowed back up by the darkness.

There was almost no trip back to the castle where Maleficent resided. The mission went too smoothly. Riku and Sora had always made a good team. Even in darkness.

“Where...where are we?” Asked Jasmine.

“Quiet.” commanded Vanitas. Jasmine held her tongue as Maleficent appeared on the balcony, overlooking the brass branded room.

“My, my, my…that was rather fast. I knew I could rely on you two. Now, my dear Princess Jasmine, if you would please step forward—down the steps if you would.”

“Where am I? Am I safe from the monsters?”

“Monsters? Would you be talking about...these?”

Shadows erupted from the ground in front of Jasmine. They weren’t like the ones from before—no, they were rounder, colorless, shaded with nothing but black. Their eyes too—they were a glowing yellow, not red. They were different monsters. What were they?

“N-no!” Yelled Jasmine. The monsters tackled her and carried her down the stairs like Maleficent had ordered her to do. They took her to the side of the wall and shoved her into a capsule—a glass case that closed on her. Her voice disappeared behind the clear wall. She banged her fists against the case but to no avail. A mist filled the capsule and she soon fell into a calming sleep. Riku stepped forward and studied the princess who now slept in her new prison. Riku looked around, there were three capsules on each side, and, not including Jasmine, three others were filled. He studied the princesses in each one.

The first girl was small with lips red as a blood, hair black as ebony, and skin as white as snow. Even though she was asleep, a smile still framed her delicate face. The next girl would have been rather boring to look at if it weren’t from her dress. It seemed as if it was almost made of pure magic. The third girl was one of the most beautiful girls Riku had ever seen—gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red rose, and in ageless sleep, she finds repose.

“You said there were seven princesses.” Said Riku, walking back to Vanitas’s side to talk to Maleficent.

“That is correct.”

“Then why do I only see six chambers?”

“There is another place for the final princess to lie.”

 “And those monsters, what were they?”

“They’re called heartless, manifested hearts that behave entirely devoid of emotion. They are creatures of pure darkness that seek to gather and devour the hearts of others, but do not worry, my friends, you are safe, for you are on my side and I am on theirs.”

“Vanitas,” Riku said, looking toward Vanitas’s boots, “those monsters you summoned, they weren’t heartless. What were they?”

“They’re called unversed—the opposite of human life. They grow from within me.” Vanitas stuck out a hand, a monster like the one from before emerging from a puddle beneath his hand. It twitched back and forth, stuck in multiple directions. “I can create them…” Vanitas closed his hand and the unversed vanished. “…and just as well I can crush them. They are me—my emotions.”

“They’ll come quite in handy.” Riku threw back some of his silver hair.

“Call it a gift.”

“You know? I’m starting to like you, Vanitas.”

“You confessing, Riku?”

“That’s rich coming from you. What was that about a kiss earlier?”

Vanitas turned and gave Riku a mocking smile. Riku’s eyes smiled at him for a moment before turning back to Maleficent.

“Where to next?”


	13. Roxas

Roxas woke back up in his room with monsters guarding his bed. He jumped and scooted to the corner but they didn’t seem to be attacking. Their thin white bodies swayed back and forth and their zippered mouths quivered on the front of their eyeless heads. Footsteps stole Roxas’s vision away from them and he saw a member of the organization standing at his doorway. He was wearing his hood—like everyone else, so it was hard to tell who he was. He knew the faces of some, but not their names, and the names he did know he could not match to faces.

“Who...are you?”

The stranger removed his hood just then. His eyes were a soft blue that matched his feminine face. His hair was beautiful, feathery, and a dusty rose color. His voice was low and steady.

“My name is Marluxia. I heard you failed your mission. I heard you didn’t even _meet_ a heartless much less eliminate one.”

“I’m…sorry.” Roxas gripped his head, he was still in pain.

“I will not allow you to sleep away another week. Get up. Your next mission will be with me. That fool Axel was only taking you out for a test drive. I, on the other hand, will lend you valuable information about the heartless and keyblade.”

Marluxia snapped and the monsters disappeared from Roxas’s bed, freeing him. He turned and waved a hand, a corridor of darkness opening in front of him. He stepped through it, expecting Roxas to follow. He did, of course, even if he wasn’t feeling up to it. There was something he was forgetting, or was it something he was remembering? He remembered collapsing on his mission with Axel, something hitting him hard, putting pressure on his heart. His heart? That’s not right… Nobodies don’t have hearts.

They were back in that familiar world, the one that Axel had brought him to the other day. The sky was still golden, and the piercing yellow sun brought dark feelings into Roxas’s mind. The sun was like a giant yellow eye staring straight through him. Yellow eyes…it hurt Roxas’s head to think about them. His attention had almost completely vanished from the mission, but as black shadows rose up from the ground he suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing. They surrounded him, waiting to attack. A warm sensation ran down Roxas’s back—warm, but sharp. It traced his spine and followed down to his hands were a brilliant light erupted. A heavy metal key appeared in his hands. Roxas swung it about when the heartless attacked. His body seemed to move on instinct and as he fought, Marluxia stayed back and told him what he needed to know.

“The Heartless are beings of darkness that manifest in two forms, ‘pureblood’ and ‘emblem’. Only emblem heartless release hearts, so go after those. The ones surrounding you are pureblood. You can tell because they lack the heart insignia on their bodies. We shouldn’t have to bother them, but defeating a round or two will call forth stronger, emblem heartless.”

Marluxia was right, as Roxas struck down the small heartless, bigger ones appeared. They turned from rugged, bright eyed shadows to more intricate figures, still with those glowing eyes. A group of heartless appeared on every side of him, they all had the same bell-shaped body, but came in different colors—blue, red, yellow, and green—each a different element. They had the emblem that Marluxia had talked about and Roxas took no time in going after them.

“As you release the hearts, they will come together to form Kingdom Hearts. Once it is complete, the organization will be able to find hearts of their own. That is the goal.”

There was something bitter in his voice. Roxas struck through the last of the heartless and turned toward his teacher.

“Marluxia… what’s wrong?” Roxas asked slowly.

“Don’t pretend to be concerned, deep down you don’t care.” Marluxia paused. “Tell me, Roxas, do you long for a heart like the rest of them?”

“I don’t need a heart to know why I’m here. Memories—that’s all I want.”

“We might be able to help you with that…yes. Roxas,” Marluxia turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Join us.”

“The…Organization?”

“No, not the organization. You and I, Roxas—we are the same. I do not yearn for a heart. I could not care less for such a useless organ. It’s not just us either—there are others too—ones that go against what the organization stands for. Join us and together we will overthrow this so-called ‘organization.’ Join us…and we’ll get you your memories back.”

“My memories…?”

“Will you?”

“I…I will.”

“Wonderful.” Marluxia looked happy, the smallest of smiles gracing his lips. It looked off. Roxas wondered if he made the right choice.

Back at the castle, Marluxia and five others gathered. Roxas met a boy with shadowy hair first. He looked to be the youngest, yet still a few years older than Roxas. He introduced himself as Zexion. He may have been younger than the others but his tone was proper and he carried himself with poise. Zexion stood close to the towering colossus next to him. His jaw was square and strong and his brown hair blew itself back behind his head. He didn’t say anything. Marluxia introduced him as Lexaeus. Roxas recognized the two names from the other day, he had heard them whispering about him from the other side of the room.

“I’m Larxene,” said a carrying voice. It belonged to a beautiful woman, the only woman Roxas had seen in the castle. Her bright blond hair was slicked back to reveal a striking face, which was mostly consisted of two large, teal eyes. She held her head high, giving off an important presence amongst the rest.

“Vexen,” said another. He was old and his dirty blond hair drew long curtains on the side of his face. Deep green eyes lined themselves with wrinkles. Roxas recognized him from the day before as well, he had stopped him and Axel in the hallway. Axel. He was here too. He stepped forward from the shadows.

“Well, well, well, Roxas. Fancy meeting you here.” Axel was his usual cool and casual self, but something he wore on his expression bothered Roxas. Axel took Marluxia aside, speaking to him out of range of Roxas’s ears as well as giving him time to get acquainted with the others.

“My, my,” said Larxene, leaning into Roxas’s space, “It’s the first time I’ve seen you up close. Axel’s told us all about you, hasn’t he, Vexen?”

“Hardly,” he scoffed. “The boy barely woke up yesterday. There was nothing Axel could’ve told us that we couldn’t determine for ourselves in a single afternoon.”

“How old are you, Roxas? You’re even smaller than Zexion. I hear you can wield a keyblade, where’d you learn how to do that? So, Axel was assigned to be your babysitter—not surprising. How do you feel about him so far? Did he mention anything about us? Obviously if he did he’d be in _big_ trouble.”

Roxas’s mind shook. He was being bombarded with questions he didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t know anything about himself other than his name and what he was supposed to do. His name. His name was Roxas. So then why did it feel so unfamiliar to him? Roxas grabbed his head and grit his teeth.

“Don’t go and break him, Larxene. He’s valuable to us, or have you forgotten?”

“I’m not going to break the toy, Vexen. I’m not dumb.”

“I’m…okay,” said Roxas, calming down. “So… None of you want hearts?”

“Larxene had hers stolen and crushed long before the darkness got a hold of it,” said Vexen. Larxene crossed her arms and looked at the ground, obviously thinking through old memories. “Lexaeus over there was always so stoic, he never needed one to begin with. Zexion, the poor boy, lost his parents when he was so very young. No one would wish to bring back that sort of pain. As for me, a heart would only hinder my studies. You see, I’m a scientist, yes. Impressive, isn’t it?”

Roxas looked blindly passed Vexen as he spoke. He wasn’t feeling right. He felt sort of ‘empty.’ How could one function with neither a heart nor memories? But if he helped here…he would get them back—his memories. He’d remember who he was. A gentle look crossed Roxas’s face then, he smiled.

“Oh?” Said Vexen, eyeing Roxas. “Amusing face, Roxas. Tell me, who taught you that? Was it Axel?”

As if on cue, Axel returned to the group. He placed a shoulder on Roxas, somewhat protective of him.

“Looks like we’ll be working together, Roxas. I’m surprised, I thought you out of anyone would have wanted a heart the most.”

“Not a heart…just memories. Marluxia said he could help me.”

“Marluxia said—with your memories?” Axel turned to Marluxia, his eyes wide, his voice low. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to use Naminé?”

“What else should we do with her? She’s already encased Sora’s heart in Vexen’s puppet, Xion, and she’s working on his memories as we speak. What other purpose does she have?”

“What purpose do _you_ have, Marluxia? She’s lived with us for almost ten years, longer than you have. What gives you the right to say such things?” Roxas grabbed his head. He was overhearing such things—so much information. He didn’t know how to process it all. He fell to his knees and cried out, the pain unbearable. “Roxas! Roxas, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“Lea,” whispered Roxas. “Help me…”

“What did he say?” questioned Marluxia.

“Nothing,” said Axel, helping Roxas to his feet. He wrapped an arm around him and lead him away from the crowd. “He’s just still getting used to all this—no heart, no memories, what can you do? He’s probably just a little overwhelmed is all.” Axel nervously hurried Roxas to his room where he sat him on the bed, wanting to ask him what was going on, but not wanting him to break down as he did earlier, so he started off slowly.

“Who are you?” Was his first question. He asked it steadily, sounding out each word carefully.

“Are you telling me you…don’t remember? You made me promise…to never forget you and yet you don’t even remember…my name. You look so different… Lea, how long has it been?”

“Stop calling me that. I asked you—who are you?”

“Ven…Ventus.”

“No way, you’re that boy I met back in Radiant Garden…ten years ago.”

“Ten…years?”

“How is this possible? You look exactly the same as the day we met. You said you didn’t have any memories of your past, and until now you were nothing but an empty shell. I don’t understand. How are you getting your memories back?”

“I don’t—I can’t seem to remember anything. There’s just this big, blank space in my mind. For some reason…the only thing I can remember is you.”

“Boy, that sure is something. Though I suppose to get the rest back you really are going to join up with Marluxia and the others, aren’t you?”

“Yes…”

“Listen Roxas, I can get you back your memories with Naminé’s help, but you can’t join with Marluxia and his gang. They’re traitors to the organization. Go any further with them and I’ll be forced to…I’ll be forced to eliminate you.”

“But you’re a part of—“

“No, I’m not. I have orders from Saix that directly come from the superior to eliminate the traitors, which is why I’m pretending to work with them.”

“So, you’re not—”

“No, and listen, you. You can’t go telling anyone this. I’m trusting you to keep this a secret. Just as well, I’ll keep the fact that your returning memories are a secret. Your name is Roxas now, got it? Rox-as.”

“Roxas…”

“That’s right.”

An organization member appeared in the doorway. His hair was blue like the moon and he had a scar on his face in the shape of an ‘x.’ This was the man from the other day, the one who had sent Axel and Roxas on their first mission. Saix.

“Axel,” he said, “It’s time.”

“Saix, we were just talking about you.”

“I’m sure of it. Lord Xemnas wants you and the others that were assigned to report to Castle Oblivion. We have word that the keyblade master has arose. We need her powers if we’re going to unlock Kingdom Hearts.”

“ _Her_ powers? Huh…” Axel turned to Roxas and sighed a smile before turning back to Saix. “No need to be coy, Saix, that’s not the real reason I’m going to Castle Oblivion and you know it.”

Saix sucked his teeth.

“I’ve let Roxas in on our little plan.”

“When did you two become such good friends? Surely two days of friendship couldn’t rival two decades of—”

“What, are you jealous?”

“Report to Castle Oblivion at once.”

Saix left the room and Axel turned back to Roxas.

“You’re coming with me, Roxas. After all, I’m supposed to be looking after you, no way they’d allow me to leave you here all by your lonesome. Oh, and just a reminder to keep secrets a secret, otherwise there’s no point. Got it memorized?”

Roxas nodded, not long after finding himself in front of Castle Oblivion.

           

Roxas woke back up in his room with monsters guarding his bed. He jumped and scooted to the corner but they didn’t seem to be attacking. Their thin white bodies swayed back and forth and their zippered mouths quivered on the front of their eyeless heads. Footsteps stole Roxas’s vision away from them and he saw a member of the organization standing at his doorway. He was wearing his hood—like everyone else, so it was hard to tell who he was. He knew the faces of some, but not their names, and the names he did know he could not match to faces.

“Who...are you?”

The stranger removed his hood just then. His eyes were a soft blue that matched his feminine face. His hair was beautiful, feathery, and a dusty rose color. His voice was low and steady.

“My name is Marluxia. I heard you failed your mission. I heard you didn’t even _meet_ a heartless much less eliminate one.”

“I’m…sorry.” Roxas gripped his head, he was still in pain.

“I will not allow you to sleep away another week. Get up. Your next mission will be with me. That fool Axel was only taking you out for a test drive. I, on the other hand, will lend you valuable information about the heartless and keyblade.”

Marluxia snapped and the monsters disappeared from Roxas’s bed, freeing him. He turned and waved a hand, a corridor of darkness opening in front of him. He stepped through it, expecting Roxas to follow. He did, of course, even if he wasn’t feeling up to it. There was something he was forgetting, or was it something he was remembering? He remembered collapsing on his mission with Axel, something hitting him hard, putting pressure on his heart. His heart? That’s not right… Nobodies don’t have hearts.

They were back in that familiar world, the one that Axel had brought him to the other day. The sky was still golden, and the piercing yellow sun brought dark feelings into Roxas’s mind. The sun was like a giant yellow eye staring straight through him. Yellow eyes…it hurt Roxas’s head to think about them. His attention had almost completely vanished from the mission, but as black shadows rose up from the ground he suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing. They surrounded him, waiting to attack. A warm sensation ran down Roxas’s back—warm, but sharp. It traced his spine and followed down to his hands were a brilliant light erupted. A heavy metal key appeared in his hands. Roxas swung it about when the heartless attacked. His body seemed to move on instinct and as he fought, Marluxia stayed back and told him what he needed to know.

“The Heartless are beings of darkness that manifest in two forms, ‘pureblood’ and ‘emblem’. Only emblem heartless release hearts, so go after those. The ones surrounding you are pureblood. You can tell because they lack the heart insignia on their bodies. We shouldn’t have to bother them, but defeating a round or two will call forth stronger, emblem heartless.”

Marluxia was right, as Roxas struck down the small heartless, bigger ones appeared. They turned from rugged, bright eyed shadows to more intricate figures, still with those glowing eyes. A group of heartless appeared on every side of him, they all had the same bell-shaped body, but came in different colors—blue, red, yellow, and green—each a different element. They had the emblem that Marluxia had talked about and Roxas took no time in going after them.

“As you release the hearts, they will come together to form Kingdom Hearts. Once it is complete, the organization will be able to find hearts of their own. That is the goal.”

There was something bitter in his voice. Roxas struck through the last of the heartless and turned toward his teacher.

“Marluxia… what’s wrong?” Roxas asked slowly.

“Don’t pretend to be concerned, deep down you don’t care.” Marluxia paused. “Tell me, Roxas, do you long for a heart like the rest of them?”

“I don’t need a heart to know why I’m here. Memories—that’s all I want.”

“We might be able to help you with that…yes. Roxas,” Marluxia turned to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Join us.”

“The…Organization?”

“No, not the organization. You and I, Roxas—we are the same. I do not yearn for a heart. I could not care less for such a useless organ. It’s not just us either—there are others too—ones that go against what the organization stands for. Join us and together we will overthrow this so-called ‘organization.’ Join us…and we’ll get you your memories back.”

“My memories…?”

“Will you?”

“I…I will.”

“Wonderful.” Marluxia looked happy, the smallest of smiles gracing his lips. It looked off. Roxas wondered if he made the right choice.

Back at the castle, Marluxia and five others gathered. Roxas met a boy with shadowy hair first. He looked to be the youngest, yet still a few years older than Roxas. He introduced himself as Zexion. He may have been younger than the others but his tone was proper and he carried himself with poise. Zexion stood close to the towering colossus next to him. His jaw was square and strong and his brown hair blew itself back behind his head. He didn’t say anything. Marluxia introduced him as Lexaeus. Roxas recognized the two names from the other day, he had heard them whispering about him from the other side of the room.

“I’m Larxene,” said a carrying voice. It belonged to a beautiful woman, the only woman Roxas had seen in the castle. Her bright blond hair was slicked back to reveal a striking face, which was mostly consisted of two large, teal eyes. She held her head high, giving off an important presence amongst the rest.

“Vexen,” said another. He was old and his dirty blond hair drew long curtains on the side of his face. Deep green eyes lined themselves with wrinkles. Roxas recognized him from the day before as well, he had stopped him and Axel in the hallway. Axel. He was here too. He stepped forward from the shadows.

“Well, well, well, Roxas. Fancy meeting you here.” Axel was his usual cool and casual self, but something he wore on his expression bothered Roxas. Axel took Marluxia aside, speaking to him out of range of Roxas’s ears as well as giving him time to get acquainted with the others.

“My, my,” said Larxene, leaning into Roxas’s space, “It’s the first time I’ve seen you up close. Axel’s told us all about you, hasn’t he, Vexen?”

“Hardly,” he scoffed. “The boy barely woke up yesterday. There was nothing Axel could’ve told us that we couldn’t determine for ourselves in a single afternoon.”

“How old are you, Roxas? You’re even smaller than Zexion. I hear you can wield a keyblade, where’d you learn how to do that? So, Axel was assigned to be your babysitter—not surprising. How do you feel about him so far? Did he mention anything about us? Obviously if he did he’d be in _big_ trouble.”

Roxas’s mind shook. He was being bombarded with questions he didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t know anything about himself other than his name and what he was supposed to do. His name. His name was Roxas. So then why did it feel so unfamiliar to him? Roxas grabbed his head and grit his teeth.

“Don’t go and break him, Larxene. He’s valuable to us, or have you forgotten?”

“I’m not going to break the toy, Vexen. I’m not dumb.”

“I’m…okay,” said Roxas, calming down. “So… None of you want hearts?”

“Larxene had hers stolen and crushed long before the darkness got a hold of it,” said Vexen. Larxene crossed her arms and looked at the ground, obviously thinking through old memories. “Lexaeus over there was always so stoic, he never needed one to begin with. Zexion, the poor boy, lost his parents when he was so very young. No one would wish to bring back that sort of pain. As for me, a heart would only hinder my studies. You see, I’m a scientist, yes. Impressive, isn’t it?”

Roxas looked blindly passed Vexen as he spoke. He wasn’t feeling right. He felt sort of ‘empty.’ How could one function with neither a heart nor memories? But if he helped here…he would get them back—his memories. He’d remember who he was. A gentle look crossed Roxas’s face then, he smiled.

“Oh?” Said Vexen, eyeing Roxas. “Amusing face, Roxas. Tell me, who taught you that? Was it Axel?”

As if on cue, Axel returned to the group. He placed a shoulder on Roxas, somewhat protective of him.

“Looks like we’ll be working together, Roxas. I’m surprised, I thought you out of anyone would have wanted a heart the most.”

“Not a heart…just memories. Marluxia said he could help me.”

“Marluxia said—with your memories?” Axel turned to Marluxia, his eyes wide, his voice low. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to use Naminé?”

“What else should we do with her? She’s already encased Sora’s heart in Vexen’s puppet, Xion, and she’s working on his memories as we speak. What other purpose does she have?”

“What purpose do _you_ have, Marluxia? She’s lived with us for almost ten years, longer than you have. What gives you the right to say such things?” Roxas grabbed his head. He was overhearing such things—so much information. He didn’t know how to process it all. He fell to his knees and cried out, the pain unbearable. “Roxas! Roxas, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“Lea,” whispered Roxas. “Help me…”

“What did he say?” questioned Marluxia.

“Nothing,” said Axel, helping Roxas to his feet. He wrapped an arm around him and lead him away from the crowd. “He’s just still getting used to all this—no heart, no memories, what can you do? He’s probably just a little overwhelmed is all.” Axel nervously hurried Roxas to his room where he sat him on the bed, wanting to ask him what was going on, but not wanting him to break down as he did earlier, so he started off slowly.

“Who are you?” Was his first question. He asked it steadily, sounding out each word carefully.

“Are you telling me you…don’t remember? You made me promise…to never forget you and yet you don’t even remember…my name. You look so different… Lea, how long has it been?”

“Stop calling me that. I asked you—who are you?”

“Ven…Ventus.”

“No way, you’re that boy I met back in Radiant Garden…ten years ago.”

“Ten…years?”

“How is this possible? You look exactly the same as the day we met. You said you didn’t have any memories of your past, and until now you were nothing but an empty shell. I don’t understand. How are you getting your memories back?”

“I don’t—I can’t seem to remember anything. There’s just this big, blank space in my mind. For some reason…the only thing I can remember is you.”

“Boy, that sure is something. Though I suppose to get the rest back you really are going to join up with Marluxia and the others, aren’t you?”

“Yes…”

“Listen Roxas, I can get you back your memories with Naminé’s help, but you can’t join with Marluxia and his gang. They’re traitors to the organization. Go any further with them and I’ll be forced to…I’ll be forced to eliminate you.”

“But you’re a part of—“

“No, I’m not. I have orders from Saix that directly come from the superior to eliminate the traitors, which is why I’m pretending to work with them.”

“So, you’re not—”

“No, and listen, you. You can’t go telling anyone this. I’m trusting you to keep this a secret. Just as well, I’ll keep the fact that your returning memories are a secret. Your name is Roxas now, got it? Rox-as.”

“Roxas…”

“That’s right.”

An organization member appeared in the doorway. His hair was blue like the moon and he had a scar on his face in the shape of an ‘x.’ This was the man from the other day, the one who had sent Axel and Roxas on their first mission. Saix.

“Axel,” he said, “It’s time.”

“Saix, we were just talking about you.”

“I’m sure of it. Lord Xemnas wants you and the others that were assigned to report to Castle Oblivion. We have word that the keyblade master has arose. We need her powers if we’re going to unlock Kingdom Hearts.”

“ _Her_ powers? Huh…” Axel turned to Roxas and sighed a smile before turning back to Saix. “No need to be coy, Saix, that’s not the real reason I’m going to Castle Oblivion and you know it.”

Saix sucked his teeth.

“I’ve let Roxas in on our little plan.”

“When did you two become such good friends? Surely two days of friendship couldn’t rival two decades of—”

“What, are you jealous?”

“Report to Castle Oblivion at once.”

Saix left the room and Axel turned back to Roxas.

“You’re coming with me, Roxas. After all, I’m supposed to be looking after you, no way they’d allow me to leave you here all by your lonesome. Oh, and just a reminder to keep secrets a secret, otherwise there’s no point. Got it memorized?”

Roxas nodded, not long after finding himself in front of Castle Oblivion.

           


	14. Kairi

Kairi had regained her breath from the last world. Her arms felt heavy but she knew she’d have to keep trudging on to find her friends and the king. He must’ve been pretty important to have his own search party out to find him, and with their own ship none the less.

“So, this king—what’s he like?” asked Kairi. She leaned on Goofy’s seat as Donald went crazy with the weapon controls once again.

“King Mickey! He’s the king of Disney Castle and is a keyblade master just like you.”

“There’s more than one keyblade master?”

“If you earn it. We met another keyblade master in the past, didn’t we Donald? Her name was Aki…Alba…Allen? You know what, I can’t seem to remember.”

“You say you have to earn the title of keyblade master, but I barely learned how to use it. Do you really think I have what it takes?”

“Of course ya do! You just have to believe in yourself.”

Kairi pressed her hand to her chest, finding her necklace. It was cool to the touch and calmed her. She remembered when it had saved her back on her island. She had always worn it, ever since she was little. It was special to her, especially since she’d had it before she came to the islands. It was the only thing she had that linked her to her past.

Donald flopped into his chair, finished with shooting for now. The heartless had died down to reveal another world that approached quickly. It was another world with sand pouring over the edges, this time a great Arabian city at the top instead of a Greek one. In the center of the city was a palace, so huge you could literally see it from space. They landed simply enough, the hot sun bearing down on them. The walls of the city were high, so once they got there some shade was available.

“Stop that thief!”

Kairi and the others turned their head around in the direction of the commotion. A boy a little older than Kairi was hurdling down the market center followed by at least a dozen guards, all with their weapons at the ready. The boy’s hands were full with a large loaf of bread but still he managed to leap and glide over various obstacles such as carts, crates, and market stalls. He was heading right for Kairi, who was standing in the middle of the road, unable to make sense of the situation fast enough to move out of the way.

The boy collided with Kairi, the bread flying out of his hands. Kairi picked it up and looked at the boy in front of her. His skin was a glowing brown, born dark and blessed darker by the sun. His brown hair hung in front of his face, eyes wide as he jumped up, Kairi’s hand in his.

“Run!” He exclaimed, heading down the road with Kairi trailing behind. Donald and Goofy had to strain to keep up, but Kairi was rather active living on the island with Sora and Riku, joining in their races every so often. The boy turned the corner and hurried up some boxes to the rooftops and Kairi followed promptly with the others trailing behind. The guards seemed to have lost them, and the four caught their breath in an abandoned building, furnished generously with rugs and drapes.

The boy fell to the ground in exhaustion and Kairi dropped to her knees beside him.

“I’m Aladdin.”

“My name’s Kairi, and this is Donald and Goofy.”

Aladdin took the bread from Kairi and tore it in two, handing half back to her. She nodded her head in thanks.

“Man, those guards are always on my tail. They probably know my face already. I hadn’t even stolen anything yet and they were already behind me.”

“You stole this bread?”

“I steal only what I can’t afford,” he fell back and took a bite of the bread, “and that’s everything.” Kairi grimaced and held the bread out to Donald who took it happily, stuffing it into his beak. She noticed some dust on her skirt and brushed it off while Aladdin stared at the ceiling. “The truth is I’m just acting out. You see, there’s this girl,” suddenly Kairi was all ears. “I used to climb up on the roofs and peer into the palace gardens and see her every day, but she wasn’t there today. She’s _always_ there. I think something might have happened to her.”

“Wait, the _palace_ gardens? Aladdin, you’re not talking about a princess, are you?”

“Yeah, she’s a princess. Princess Jasmine. I swear you’ve never seen a girl more beautiful than her. She’s also very independent for royalty, a free thinker, and not to mention fearless! Did you know she has a pet tiger? That’s amazing! She’s…amazing.”

“Have you ever talked to her? She might like you too if she gets to know you.”

“Come on. She’s a princess and I’m…I’m just a dirty street rat. She’d never fall for a guy like me.”

“Well if you’re so sure, let’s go ask her.”

“What?”

“Come on, let’s go find Princess Jasmine and ask her! I’m sure a _free thinker_ like her wouldn’t mind where you come from.”

“I guess it can’t hurt to try, but she’s missing. Remember?”

“Well, we can ask around the palace!”          

“Kairi, you can’t just walk right through the palace gates,” Aladdin chuckled.

Yet somehow Aladdin soon found himself standing next to Kairi right outside the palace gates. They were intimidating up close, but more so were the large guards standing in front of them, their scimitars fashioned at their sides. When Aladdin, Kairi, Donald and Goofy drew near, the guards reached for their weapons.

“What do you want?” spat one of the guards. Kairi looked confidently between the two guards.

“I’m here to see Princess Jasmine, of course.”

“No one is allowed in the castle without permission. Especially an outsider like you. Where do you come from? Your clothes are not from around here.”

“I _do_ have permission. Straight from the sultan himself, in fact. I’m one of Princess Jasmine’s closest friends—Princess Kairi. You may not recognize my clothes, I am from another kingdom, you see.”

The guards looked at each other raising their brows.

“And the others? I’m sure this street rat is no prince.”

“He is obviously my trusted servant. He basically lives for me, you understand I couldn’t leave him at home—I mean, at my palace. Next to him are my knights—Donald and Goofy. The trip is long I needed protection lest anything happen to a princess like me.”

Kairi kept her head held high as she spoke. She held herself like royalty while still seeming sweet and approachable. The guards nodded and opened the gates for Kairi and the others. Aladdin’s face was in awe as he followed her through into the palace. When they were a good way inside, he turned to Kairi with a big grin on his face.

“That was amazing, Kairi! I can’t believe it! I thought you were an actual princess for a moment.”

“Why thank you,” Kairi giggled. “Now, let’s ask someone if they’ve seen Princess Jasmine.”

A man passed by them at the end of the room. He had a scowling face and his beard was twisted. He stood tall with a scepter in his hand, a bird perched on his shoulder. He looked toward the four and raised an eyebrow, heading toward them slowly.

“Who are you, and what are you doing in the palace?” He said, his face seemed to be drawn into a permanent frown.

“I’m Princess Kai-”

“I don’t care.”

“But you’re the one who asked!”

“I will have guards escort you out of the palace immediately.”

“No, I’m not leaving unless we see Princess Jasmine.”

“The princess? What would you want with—“ the man gasped and rushed off, everyone following. They entered a garden, beautiful and green compared to the rest of the desert. The man called out for Princess Jasmine but she was nowhere in sight. The distracting sound of birds could be heard off to the left. There was a delicate cage filled with exotic birds making a racket. The man went over to them, yelling at them to be quiet. He opened the cage in rage and the birds flew out, circling around the fountain, chirping erratically.

“Jasmine was kidnapped!” yelled Aladdin.

“What are you on about, boy?” spat the older man.

“The birds, they said she was taken by two strange boys.”

“You know what the birds are saying?” asked Kairi. Aladdin smiled.

“Well sure, you learn a lot from having a pet monkey.”

“You have a pet monkey!?” Donald and Goofy awed at the same time.

“Where is he?” asked just Goofy this time.

“He’s off doing some…monkey business. Otherwise he’d be here helping us look for Jasmine.”

“The only thing you’ll be looking for, boy, is the door.” The man turned his scepter on Aladdin.

“Oh yeah? Says who?”

“Me—Jafar, royal vizier.”

Aladdin didn’t seem to be impressed, though he should have been at such a title. Kairi sweated nervously, looking back and forth between them.

“Wait,” said Kairi, “two strange boys? What did they look like? What were their names? Please, you have to tell me!” Kairi yelled up at the birds. They chirped on and on as they watched them circle the sky. Aladdin translated.

“They were two young boys, one with silver hair—“

“Riku!”

“And one with black hair.”

“Black hair?”

“They say the two boys were both wearing black as well.”

“That’s not right…”

“Where did they take Jasmine?” Aladdin called up at the birds. They circled the group, chirping a long reply. Aladdin searched the ground. “What…?”

“What did they say?”

“They just keep saying the word ‘darkness’ over and over again.”

Images flashed through Kairi’s mind. Darkness—it surrounded her world’s sky as she made her way around the island. It was behind her, in front of her, coming out of the door back on the island. It had knocked her over. Her head hurt. Kairi winced and looked down, grabbing the back of her hair. She didn’t want to deal with darkness. After she had seen what it could do—she was so afraid. She remembered not caring for Sora’s fear of darkness. He had come to her in confidence and while she said she was there for him, she just didn’t get it. Kairi had never been afraid of anything—until now. She clenched her fists and turned toward Aladdin.

“I’ll do everything in my power to get Jasmine back to you, Aladdin.” Jafar scoffed.

“Why would you return her to this dirty boy? You should return her where she belongs—to the palace under _my_ hand.”

Guards appeared at the door to the garden, their swords tied to their sides. They raised an eyebrow at Kairi and the others.

“Is this them, Jafar?”

“Yes. Please escort these brats out of the palace at once.”

One of the guards grabbed Aladdin and the other grabbed Donald and Goofy, one under each gigantic arm. They didn’t lay a finger on Kairi, trusting her to follow them out peacefully. Kairi pouted, knowing they were treating her like this because she was a girl, not that she minded not being picked up and thrown out onto the streets. Back on the island Riku and Sora always treated her like an equal, so it threw her off that while the guards didn’t touch Kairi, her company was thrown as far as the guards could manage. They nodded at each other and headed back inside the gates. Aladdin dusted himself off and turned toward Kairi and the others.

“Thanks for all your help, Kairi, Donald, Goofy. I’ll trust you to find Princess Jasmine. Please, just bring her back to me.”

“We’ll do our best, Aladdin.”

“Alright, I’m going to go find Abu.”

“A-who?”

“My monkey!” Aladdin chuckled. He waved at the three of them and ran off down the street. Goofy tapped Kairi on the shoulder.

“What do we do now?”

“Weren’t you there? We have to find Princess Jasmine.”

“Along with the king and your friends?”

“As long as we’re looking anyway, it should be a—“

Kairi felt a chill run down her back. It was cold and creeping and once again it carried her mind back to the island.

“What’s wrong, Kairi?” Asked Donald.

“I sense something weird.” She felt cold. “Darkness? Is this darkness?”

“D-d-darkness? Where?” shuddered Donald. Kairi closed her eyes and felt around with her hands in the direction of the sensation. Her hands pressed against something rough and she opened her eyes to face the palace walls once again.

“Here, help me up.”

The three of them piled up on top of each other’s shoulders with Kairi on top so she could peer back over the walls. She was looking into the garden where she saw Jafar with a mysterious guest. She stood taller than him, but only because from the top of her head grew two long horns. Her eyes were heavy with shadows—with darkness. The woman held herself very highly, making Jafar seem a little less composed than Kairi had initially thought him to be. Kairi could just barely make out their conversation.

“It’s too soon, my lady.”

“I’ve waited countless years, Jafar, I am not going to wait any longer. I finally have the tools I need to acquire what I want and no one will stand in my way—not even someone as close to me as you.”

“We may be close, but no one is more special to me than Jasmine. Please, can’t you save her for last? I want to spend a little more time with her before she’s gone.”

“I’m sorry, Jafar. Riku and Vanitas have already made their move. Do not worry, I will take good care of the girl while you miss her.”

The woman turned away from Jafar, a corridor of darkness opening in front of her. She entered, her body leaving into the shadows.

“She can’t be gone yet! Please! Maleficent!”

Jafar was unsteady and he leaned on his scepter for support. Kairi put her hand to her mouth and called down to the others.

“Did you hear that? She said Riku! Riku was here!”

Jafar must’ve heard her because he whipped around after she’d spoken, glaring at her. Kairi lost her balance and the three of them fell to the ground, but instead of getting up right away, Kairi remained on the ground groaning.

“Kairi, are you okay?” asked Donald.                        

“I’ve already hit my head a couple of times today. You think I’d be used to it but it’s just getting worse.”

“I have an idea,” Donald said, raising his staff to the sky. “Cure!” he called out. Kairi’s vision went green and she saw sweet bells of flowers above her. Her body flowed with energy and her head felt lighter. She sat up and rubbed the back of her hair and felt no pain at all.

“Wow! What was that?”

“Magic!” Donald exclaimed gleefully.

“Yup,” Goofy said, “Donald’s the king’s Royal Magician!”

“That’s so cool,” Kairi said in awe. “Do you think you could teach me how to do magic? I mean, the keyblade _is_ magic, so casting something like a cure spell would be something I could do too, right?”

“Cure is a very high-level spell! Let’s start you off with blizzard, or fire,” Donald thought.

“What am I going to do with fire? Light some candles?”

“You never know when it’ll come in handy.”

“I also want to learn how to drive the gummi ship.”

“Now, now,” laughed Goofy, “one thing at a time.”

Kairi laughed a joyous laugh strong enough so that it rivaled her famous giggles. She was having so much fun on this adventure. She was learning new things, making new friends. She wished Riku and Sora were with her, they would’ve loved to see all these new worlds with her. Kairi looked up to the sky—bright and cloudless. She wondered how long it would stay light and sunny in this world. The trio had to get moving, quickly, before the darkness swallowed more worlds than it already had. She had to find Riku and Sora. Kairi thought back to what that woman had said—Maleficent. She wondered if Riku could be in danger, and if he was, what was Sora going through?

Kairi jumped to her feet and dusted herself off. She had a determined blush on her face and as she clenched her fists she turned toward Donald and Goofy with furrowed brows and a well sized smile.

“Let’s go find our friends.”


	15. Riku

The arabian princess slept soundly in her glass prison. Riku and Vanitas stared at her peaceful face as Maleficent approached them. She had on a gentle smile, yet still looked somewhat sinister. The two boys turned toward her. She switched her eyes between them and then to the princess in the chamber.

“You did well, boys, and so quickly too. It shouldn’t be long before we are able to open the door.”

“What’s this door you’re talking about?” said Riku. “Does it…does it have to do with letting in the heartless? When my island was being consumed by darkness, there was a door…when I opened it the heartless were let through to devour what was left.”

“You were the one to open this door, Riku?”

“Well yes, but—“

“Then you should have no problem opening another one. This ‘door’ I mentioned—it is called the Door to Darkness. It holds the power to reign over all worlds, and yes, it contains heartless. Where else would they come from but beyond the darkness?”

Riku looked to the ground and clenched his fists.

“It’s too late to grow a conscience now, boy. Finish what you’ve started, or have you forgotten our deal?”

Vanitas placed a rough hand on Riku’s shoulder, trying to comfort him or intimidate him he had no idea, but as he did so he felt darkness flow through Vanitas’s hand and into his body.

“Alright,” said Riku, “I’ll do it, but only to get my friends back.” He looked at Vanitas with annoyance, his hand still on his shoulder. “Do you mind?”

Vanitas looked confused.

“First you’re on about kissing me, and now your hands are lingering on me for longer than they should be.”

“Hey, I only said I’d kiss you so you’d be able to taste the darkness.”

“Taste the—please never say that again. You’re too casual with your jokes, Vanitas, you’re just like So—“

“Don’t say that! I am not like anyone else. I am like me and that’s it. I’m not your Sora, and I’m _not_ Ventus. I’m _me_!” Vanitas’s fists were balled up and he was panting. Shouting out of nowhere startled Riku. He wanted to comfort him, but what the small amount of darkness Vanitas had just put into him took over.

“You are only part of a whole. You do not exist without your other parts and I am going to reunite them…which means you do not exist without me either.”

“No, I’m me and no one else!”

“You’re only a piece of my friend Sora, and when I get all the pieces back I’ll have him back, and you—you’ll be gone.”

“Shut up!”

A beam of darkness emitted from Vanitas’s hand and it came together in the concrete form of a sword, intricate and shaped like a key. He swung it with might at Riku and it hit him in the side, causing him to cry out in pain and land some ways from both Vanitas and Maleficent.

“Now, now, my boys,” said Maleficent, “I know that with the darkness swimming so heavily within both of you that it is hard to hold your tongues,” she looked at Riku, “and your tempers,” she said, looking at Vanitas, “but we must work together if this is going to get done.”

“Why should I help you, again?”

“Riku, did you hit your head when you fell just now? You already answered your question, it’s to find your friends.”

“You open the Door to Darkness, then what? What does that mean for me?”

“You want to protect your friends, don’t you?” Maleficent turned away from them, talking with her back to their faces. “I can offer you the power to do so. All the strength you need can be given to you by the darkness.”

“Strength?” said Riku, with his eyes wide. Maleficent waved her hand and the same beam of darkness that shot from Vanitas’s hand shot from Riku’s. There was a sword, not as fancy as Vanitas’s, but red, black, and blue like his—the colors of darkness. It felt heavy in his hand and fit so perfectly in his fist. He held it out in front of him and looked down the edge, his view of Maleficent balanced on the tip. She turned around and waved another hand, a corridor of darkness erupting from the floor.

“Your next destination is wonderland. Don’t disappoint me…and oh, try not to get lost.”

Vanitas scoffed as he headed toward the portal. Riku was still looking down his sword when the other boy grabbed his hand and led him through the darkness.

“Not so rough, I might fall,” warned Riku.

“You seemed like the type to like it rough. What, would you rather I caress your hand while I held it?”

“I said those jokes weren’t funny.”

If the part about falling had been a joke it certainly wasn’t now, as after a few steps Riku and Vanitas found that the floor had dropped from beneath them suddenly finding themselves falling at an incredibly fast pace. Riku tried opening his eyes against the wind but saw nothing but crazy shapes and colors passing by him in blurry streaks. He cried out for Vanitas who had his arms up in front of his face.

Riku did his best to angle his body so he could closer to Vanitas, grabbing one of his hands with his own, just so he could have something to hold on to. Suddenly they slowed, the shapes on the walls becoming a clear yet still wavy checker pattern. Riku looked down and Vanitas followed his vision. The ground was visible and approaching at a steady rate. The two landed one foot after the other with no trouble at all. They were in a circular room with nothing other than a door on one side of the wall.

Vanitas looked around until he saw Riku’s hand on his. He narrowed his eyes at him and Riku immediately pulled away, looking in another direction with a furrowed brow.

“Who’s touching who, you said?” Vanitas smirked.

Riku reached out a hand and opened the door. Behind it was another door. He turned red as Vanitas choked on his own laughter. He opened the second door but there was a third door behind that one. He kept going, but the doors never stopped along with Vanitas’s laugher. However, as Vanitas’s howls got louder, the doors got smaller. Each door Riku opened was smaller than the one in front of it.

“Alright, fine,” huffed Riku. He stepped aside and crossed his arms, motioning to the mess with his head. “You try,” he said.

Vanitas smirked before rolling his eyes and stepping forward to open the door. He had to crouch to reach the knob but he pushed it open with ease, another room showing itself on the other side.

“You’re welcome,” Vanitas said, his tongue sticking out from his mouth.

“Whatever.”

Riku pushed Vanitas aside and crawled through the final door. Vanitas followed behind him and they found themselves in another small room with the same crazy feel to it. There were too many patterns and made the room noisy and crowded even though the only thing in the room was a table and another small door.

The two crouched in front of the door, thinking they’d crawl through this one too, but when Riku tried the knob it was locked.

“Punch it,” suggested Vanitas.

“No, don’t do that!” called a sleepy voice. It was coming from the door.

“Hello?” Riku called through the door, trying the knob again, he jiggled it roughly, putting more force on it this time.

“I told you—punch it,” said Vanitas one more time.

“Didn’t you hear me? I said not to—y _awn_.”

The keyhole underneath the knob stretched wide at the same time the voice yawned. The voice was not coming from behind the door, but it _was_ the door, or at least the doorknob. A sleepy pair of eyes opened themselves and squinted up at both Riku and Vanitas, their eyes wide at the bizarre sight.

“I’ll open for you,” said the doorknob, “but there’s no way you’re getting through—you’re too big!”

“How do we get smaller?” asked Riku.

 The doorknob yawned and closed his eyes.

“How do we get smaller!?” yelled Vanitas, pounding his fist on the floor.

The doorknob jumped, not that doorknobs can jump, and blinked his eyes up at Vanitas. He yawned again before looking toward the center of the room.

“Why don’t you try the bottle on the table?”

Riku had no hesitation in taking a small sip from the mysterious bottle that was apparent on the table. He shivered and shut his eyes, waiting for whatever he was feeling to stop shaking him. He blinked several times, his vision blurry. Vanitas was howling with laugher and as Riku opened his eyes he saw why. He was incredibly tiny, standing on the table top, staring up toward a towering Vanitas.

“This can’t be,” he said. “I must be less than six inches!”

“Man, Riku, you were probably less than six inches to begin with,” Vanitas howled. Riku’s face turned bright red.

“And I know more about Sora than he does. I could tell you what’s up. Get down here and I might even show you.” Riku was trying to be snide and maybe even a little cocky but the second it left his mouth he realized what he had just said.

“Riku, you pervert!” cried Vanitas, taking the bottle in his hand. Something about the way he said it made Riku’s heart stop. The flush of embarassment left his face and a solemn look took over. Vanitas met him by his side, shrinking down to meet him on the table. When Riku didn’t say anything back he began to study his face. “What? No come back?”

“Let’s just go. I have to get my friends back.”

“That’s right,” a smile slid across Vanitas’s face. The next thing he said was a whisper. “After this, I can finally be of use to him.”

“Of use to who?” Riku asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Vanitas punched his partner in the arm, teasing him as he ran ahead. Riku hurried down the path after him, trees beginning to grow around them in a small little forest once they passed through the door. It wasn’t just the face, Vanitas really did remind him of Sora. His energy was just like his and as he saw Vanitas race ahead of him he couldn’t help but lose himself.

“So, you wanna race, do ya?” Riku’s heart thumped with joy as he sped up to meet Vanitas who turned his head to peer at Riku from the side, his bright yellow eyes meeting Riku’s soft green ones. The two smirked at each other, a competitive nature running through them both. They were going head to head, toe to toe, staring a daring stare into each other’s eyes, glancing every so often at the road ahead to make sure they didn’t trip. Funny enough, however, Vanitas still managed to trip and went rolling onto the path ahead before smacking the back of his head onto a white picket fence.

“And the winner is…Riku!” Riku announced his own victory. Vanitas sat up, rubbing his chin.

“You just got lucky is all. What did I hit my head on anyway?”

The two looked up to see a large cottage standing on the side of the path. There was something odd about it though. It must have been the giant protruding arms and legs coming from the windows and doors.

“Monster!” cried Vanitas.

“I’m not a monster!” cried a voice from inside the cottage. It was soft and gentle like a small girl’s. The hands of the monstrous beast reached for a window in the front and opened the shutters. Two big blue eyes stared down at both Riku and Vanitas. “Oh please, you must help me. My name is Alice. I appear to have gotten stuck.”

“How’d you get stuck in a place like that, Alice?”

“Well I was looking for some gloves for the white rabbit and I came across a small box of treats. They had the words ‘eat me’ on them, so of course I did. Next thing you know I’m the size of this cottage!

“What kind of rabbit wears gloves?” snorted Vanitas, rubbing the back of his head.

“The kind that lives in a cottage and eats frosted cookies,” Riku replied.

“Try this,” Vanitas said to Alice, “It might make you smaller.” Vanitas took a bottle from his belt and gave it to Alice which held it between two giant fingers.

“You stole the bottle the doorknob gave us?”

“I didn’t steal it. I…borrowed it,” Vanitas turned his head to the side, mumbling snidely, “with no intention of returning it.”

The sound of Riku’s eyes rolling was almost audible, and while he was busy with a palm to his face, Alice had taken a very large sip of the bottle that Vanitas had handed her. Within seconds her arms and legs shrunk back from the cottage’s openings and Alice had disappeared inside. A girl, just a child, came out the front door after a few moments. She had had golden hair and a beautiful blue dress that matched her eyes.

“Thank you for helping me, uh,” Alice paused for his name.

“I’m Vanitas and he’s Riku.”

“Thank you, Vanitas. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Alice relieved a perfect smile, her rosy cheeks and pink lips like flowers. She curtsied when she thanked him. Her heart was of pure light. She held out her hand, offering back to empty bottle.

Vanitas took her hand with a smile and offered a bow to meet her curtsey.

“The pleasure is all mine Alice. Did you say you were looking for a white rabbit?”

“Oh yes! I’ve meant to bring him his gloves—oh, they must be back in the cottage.”

“Well we certainly can’t go looking for him without those gloves. Why don’t you go find them and we’ll meet you right back out here.”

“Vanitas what’re you—” Riku tried to ask, but Vanitas cut him off.

“Hurry back! Stay away from those cookies now, you hear?” Vanitas hurried off Alice into the cottage, Riku waiting until she was gone to continue talking.

“What’s your angle? We’re not here for side quests.”

“Riku, couldn’t you tell? That girl’s heart was pure light—she’s one of the Princesses of Heart. See, this is why I’m the leader.”

“Excuse me? You’re the what now?”

“I’m the man…with the plan.”

On the last word, Alice came rushing out of the cottage, gloves in hand. No second sooner she went flying through the air, having tripped on the outstretched leg of Vanitas. He caught her with a single arm before she hit the ground and hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

“The gloves! Oh my, Vanitas, what’s wrong?”

But Vanitas said nothing—just opened a corridor of darkness and lead the way back to Maleficent and the chamber.

There was a lot of struggling once Alice figured out what was going on. No doubt scared by the darkness of the corridor. Vanitas found no grace in shoving Alice into one of the glass chambers and before she could escape, a fog surrounded her, putting her into a quieter state—a state of deep sleep.

“You couldn’t have been a little gentler? You were so smooth with Jasmine, but Alice is just a little girl. You can’t do that.” Scolded Riku.

“Actually, I figured she’d be easy to carry _because_ she was a child.”

“I mean I know you said we weren’t kidnapping anyone but that was definitely kidnap.”

“She was a Princess of Heart in any case. I just got a little carried away.”

“Was it the darkness? Did it take over?”

“Oh Riku, Riku, Riku. Don’t think we fall into darkness the same way. You hold your darkness in a little container within your heart. For me, however, darkness _is_ my container. We’re not on the same level. We never will be.”

There was a slow applaud from behind them just then and they turned around to see the familiar Maleficent. Her staff was tucked in the crook of her elbow and her elegantly bony hands applauded them.

“Well done, Riku. Vanitas. You have done so very well.”

“Now I get a reward, right? You’re going to give me my friends?”

“You have a choice, Riku. Sora’s heart… Sora’s memories…” she paused, “…or Kairi.” Vanitas nearly lost his footing.

“You have to pick his heart, Riku. Pick Ven—I mean Sora’s heart.”

“Just so we can get him back together, please, I choose Kairi.”

Maleficent took her staff and waved it off to the side, summoning a corridor of darkness. She smiled gently and nodded her head.

“Don’t forget to return. Then again, it’s not like you have anywhere else to go.”

You could hear the smile on Maleficent’s lips as she said her last words. Riku paid no mind. All he could think about was seeing Kairi.

 


	16. Xion

Xion’s head was spinning. She had only just come into existence and all this information had been dumped on her. Naminé was very enthusiastic when she spoke to her. She probably hadn’t had anyone to talk to as a friend in a while. Xion tried to collect her thoughts. She remembered that man, Axel, telling Naminé she was “the soul keeper of that heart.” Xion knew they were talking about Sora’s heart. Naminé said he was important.

She told her about the men in the black coats which Xion had met two of. They were a part of something called ‘Organization XIII,’ and together they sought the wielder of the keyblade, a peaceful weapon used to unlock the lights within people's heart. They wanted to use it to complete Kingdom Hearts, so they’d be able to find hearts of their own. Xion wondered how she was connected to all this.

Xion felt her body heavy on itself and tried to move around but found herself unable to. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was Demyx, about to attack her, and then…light. A voice whispered into her head. _Keyblade._

“So glad you could be of help to me at this time, Naminé.” A man’s shrill old voice was speaking. Xion tried to open her eyes but she just couldn’t seem to. He mentioned Naminé. She wondered if she was in the room with her.

“Yes, Vexen.” It was Naminé. She talked in a monotone voice, quietly, like she was forcing herself to answer him, or she was being forced by someone else.

“I hope you realize how much trouble I went through to find the boy’s mem­­ories. I should be promoted if I do say so myself.”

“Yes, Vexen.”

“Isn’t it funny, Naminé, that I, without a heart, would create something that has one of its own? If Xemnas or Lord Marluxia knew she wasn’t an ordinary nobody like us, then I can’t imagine what would happen. They would probably turn me into a dusk, or worse.”

“Yes, Vexen.”

“Continue to hide her until the week is up. We don’t want to introduce her too soon.”

“But Demyx has already discovered her. He said he was going to tell the Superior.”

“Xemnas is not my superior,” Vexen snapped. “Besides, it’s just Demyx. Even if he did tell, no one would believe him.” Xion could hear Vexen step closer to her. She felt him push a lock of hair out of her face. She wanted to push his hand away but couldn’t seem to move. “Can you believe it, Naminé? Not only a day ago this was a faceless puppet, but when we placed his heart within it, it began to take shape. And now, now that it has his memories as well…”

“But hasn’t something gone wrong? She doesn’t look like him. If she has his heart and his memories should she _be_ him? Instead she’s just a projection created by his heart. Something went wrong I don’t—“

Vexen banged his fist on something.

“My experiments are always _perfect_. Silly girl, do you honestly think I would make a mistake?”

“But didn’t y—“

“No, I did not! Once his heart and memories start to settle into its body then she will begin to take his form. Now, you will do as you’re told. Hide the girl with you until Lord Marluxia gives the word. Like I said, it should be until the end of the week. Maybe by then Number XIII will be awake. It is vital that we include him in our plan as well, yes.”

A week passed by like Vexen had said, and Xion was released into the castle in The World That Never Was, the Organization’s headquarters. She spent most of her time standing around, trying to develop her thoughts and memories like Naminé had told her. In private she would try summoning the keyblade, like Vexen had told her.

None of the other members talked to her, which she didn’t mind. Still, she spent a good amount of her time in the same space as them and learned a lot about them. Xion kept her face hidden at all times under orders, but no one else seemed to utilize the hood of their coats around each other.

The members chatted around ignoring her. They all seemed so comfortable with each other and Xion wondered just how long they’d all been friends. She also wondered if Nobodies could even have friends. She recognized Demyx with his gelled-up hair and giant blue sitar. He played music for the others and didn’t even seem to notice her. He must have forgotten about their encounter.

She used evidence from before and what she gathered now to determine there were different ranks within the Organization, but no one cared about them, at least not Saix, Number VII, who acted like he was second in charge, giving out orders and sending members on missions. Xigbar was actually Number II, but he did nothing but polish his weapons and put his boots on the table which Saix kept yelling at him for. They seemed to get along.

She watched Saix bark orders left and right until there was no one left to order around. It was then that he approached her. She began to shake in her boots.

“Number XIV.”

Xion didn’t say anything.

“Do you want to be of use?”

Xion still didn’t say anything, she just nodded slowly.

“You haven’t done anything yet, but I don’t feel I should start you off slow. Because you’re ‘special,’ I will be giving you a mission to match.” Saix looked around, surveying the empty room. “I suspect there are several members acting as traitors, plotting to overthrow the Superior and the Organization. I’ve already sent Axel to monitor them and infiltrate their group but I’m not sure I have his complete trust. You’re more a neutral party so I’m sure I can leave this to you. Do this for me and I will favor you. I’m sending the group to Castle Oblivion to do more research on the keyblade wielder. You will be going with them.”

Xion looked up to Saix, his cold yellow eyes unwavering from her face. Saix was an important member of the Organization, if she was in his favor then she might finally belong somewhere within the ranks as an actual member. No one would ignore her. She would be one of them. Xion nodded and Saix gave her a list of the members. She only recognized one or two of the names from watching everyone gather so she would talk to them.

There was Axel, Number VIII. He had red hot hair and piercing green eyes, each with an upside-down teardrop stained underneath them. He talked unfamiliar to everyone but Roxas.

Roxas was the other one she recognized. Xion remembered catching his gaze at one time or another. He was the only one that did. Roxas. The other keyblade wielder. He was her age, she figured, so it’d be easy to talk to him. She clenched her fists until her gloves squeaked.

The next day Saix sent her to Castle Oblivion. She arrived through a corridor, her first time in one. The walls were blurry with symbols of the Nobody. Symbols of nothingness. It took Xion a while to summon another corridor, to find the Realm In Between where Castle Oblivion was located.

The castle had an ill structure. The towers were jagged and the door was crooked. Still, she entered. She saw the members gathered around in the first room which was clean and white and perfect unlike the exterior. They all stared at her for the first and she felt uneasy having so many eyes on her for the first time.

“You’re the new kid, right?” Said Axel. Xion nodded, glad one of the only ones she knew addressed her first..

“And you’re Axel,” she said, and Axel looked around at the others with a big grin.

“So, you’ve got it memorized, do you? That’s more than I can say for Roxas here. It’s already been more than a week and he’s still figuring things out.” Roxas blinked and turned toward Axel.

“I’m…getting the hang of it.”

“That’s what he says too. So, you’re Xion right? I’m assuming Saix sent you to help us. I supposed two keyblade wielders is better than one. It might help us out actually.” A man to the side of Axel hummed his attention. “Right. Xion you know me and Roxas, let me introduce you to the others.” Axel gestured to the man who had just interrupted. He had mysterious eyes and dusty hair. “This is Marluxia, Number XI.”

“It’s a pleasure to now be acquainted with the other keyblade wielder. Hopefully you’ll be able to help us with our mission.”

“I’m Larxene, Number XII,” interrupted a beautiful woman. She had a sharp brow and a permanent smirk. She seemed to be the only other female in the organization besides Xion. Larxene continued with the introductions. She pointed to a younger member, his hair in his face and his hand to his chin. “This is—“

“I can introduce myself, Larxene, thank you. I’m Zexion, Number VI.”

“He’s real fun to be around,” Larxene said as she rolled her eyes. Zexion removed his hand from his chin and gestured to a towering member next to him.

“This is my—this is Lexaeus, Number V.” Lexaeus nodded at his words. Larxene came down to whisper into Xion’s ear but she spoke loud enough for everyone to hear her.

“Lexaeus doesn’t talk much but Zexion makes up for that.”

“And you have more than enough ‘personality’ for everyone in this room, Larxene. Do we all agree? Yes, I think we do.”

There was one more member. Xion couldn’t take her eyes off him, mainly because he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She could feel him looking at her face, although hidden behind her hood, it made her uneasy. His eyebrow was popped in an almost permanent expression and he had a sickening grin on his face.

“Oh,” said Larxene, waving her hand lazily. “Last and most definitley least we have Vexen, Number IV,” she was almost mumbling.

“You’d be wise to respect your elders, Larxene,” Vexen said. His voice carried in an icy way. “As well as your superiors. Let’s not forget our ranks. I’m Number II among us.” Larxene rolled her eyes.

“You’re above me in rank anyway. Just because you go up two ranks between groups doesn’t make you any more special.”

“I’ll find you that it does.” Vexen mused. Marluxia cleared his throat.

“Friends, let’s not all forget why we’re here. We must work together to capture and contain the keyblade wielders.”

“To what?” Xion and Roxas said at the same time. Roxas shook his head.

“That’s not what you told me, Marluxia. You said you wanted to…overthrow the Organization and stop them from completing kingdom hearts.” Axel looked surprised to hear Roxas speak more than a single short sentence.

“Nice going, Superior,” said Axel. There was something of mockery in his voice when he said ‘Superior.’ “That’s more than I’ve gotten him to say all week.”

“All week? He’s only been awake for the past two days.”

“You know what I mean. The week since he’s been here.” Axel sighed. Marluxia talked to him with unrelated suspicion. Xion didn’t know why. Roxas spoke up again.

“I…I asked a question.” Roxas said sternly, yet still somewhat absent. Marluxia placed a hand on his shoulder.

“The Organization plans to complete Kingdom Hearts with the help of the keyblade wielder. So if they were on our side then the Organization’s plan cannot find completion.”

“I’m…a keyblade wielder.”

“That’s right, Roxas, you’re a keyblade wielder, along with Xion.”

“You said ‘the keyblade wielder,’ just one…but there are two right here.” Roxas said confused. Vexen stepped close to both Roxas and Xion, speaking too closely to the two as if he were examining them.

“I _suspect_ ,” he said, Xion knowing he was privy to more than he let on and his suspicions were more than just suspicions. “Roxas and Xion are branches of a main keyblade wielder. In fact, I’m sure of it. They showed up around the time he lost his heart. They must be fragments of it.”

“He?” said Marluxia. “They keyblade wielder is a boy? I sensed something different.”

“He is a boy, I can assure you, My Lord.”

Vexen hummed and turned around, a smile on his face. He waved a hand and a large crystal sphere appeared in the center of the room. Xion peered into it, the rest of the room following. She could see her reflection in it, as well as something else entirely.

“Look, look there and see the boy. Riku—the keyblade’s chosen one.”

Xion saw two boys in the crystal, each wearing darkness as a suit. The keyblade wielder was of the darkness? Surely Vexen must have the wrong boy. One of the boys had silver hair, the other with dark black hair. They were arguing and the one with black hair pulled out a keyblade, striking the other down.

“He’s strong, this…Riku. No doubt he will be hard to persuade,” said Zexion. Lexaeus grunted in agreement. Vexen was on the clear globe in a second, his hands searching the picture.

“That’s not right! Riku is the one with silver hair, not this other boy. Why does that boy have the keyblade? Riku is the chosen one!” Vexen banged his fists on the crystal. Marluxia cleared his throat for the third time making Vexen turn around shaking. He was laughing nervously.

“Vexen, what is the meaning of this?”

“I’m not sure, My Lord. I never make a mistake I never…”

“Roxas and Xion were not even a part of the plan. Riku was our target. He was the _only_ target. That’s what you told me.”

“Well you see, yes he was originally the keybearer we were supposed to go after. But when he succumbed to the darkness the keyblade would not take to him.

“So. then he’s _not_ the key bearer?”

“No, he is! He _should_ be. The power is still within him, I’m sure. I wanted to make sure there was no room for error so I thought we should go after him anyway.”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘no room for error,’ because clearly there was an error.”

“My Lord, please.”

“Who is this boy, the suspicious one with the black hair?”

“That is his friend, Sora. He should not have a keyblade, he was never chosen.”

Something in Xion’s mind sparked. What was Vexen talking about? He was lying to Marluxia, the one he called ‘My Lord.’ Vexen knew well that Sora was a key bearer, which is why he trapped his heart and memories within Xion. Which is why Xion could wield the keyblade. Xion opened her mouth to say something but before she could, she found Roxas on his knees screaming. At once the room was around him, Axel’s hand on his back.

“Roxas, what’s wrong?” he said worriedly. Roxas’s hands were gripping his hair, ready to pull it out. Axel took his hands in his own so he wouldn’t hurt himself and held them tight. “Just breathe, okay? Look, I’m right here.”

Roxas looked up, squinting, intense pain on his face.

“Sora…” he strained to say. “I know that name.”

Xion bit her lip. Should she say something? She could expose Vexen right here and now as a traitor to traitors and help Roxas with whatever he was feeling. Roxas leaned forward and took deep breaths through his pain, resting his head on Axel’s chest.

“I know that name as well,” Xion said. The room’s eyes switched from Roxas to her and her face burned. She wasn’t used to having so much attention on her at once. Vexen was giving her a sharp eye, almost as a warning. They were all waiting for her to say something. To answer the question they didn’t know how to ask, but Xion didn’t know how to say the answer she was looking for either. Roxas pushed away from Axel and winced up at Xion.

“Who is he?” he breathed. “Who is Sora?”

Xion curled her toes tight into her boots and took a deep breath. She tucked her fingers underneath her hood and removed it. She could see her reflection in the crystal ball. Bright blue eyes and messy brown hair.

“It’s me. I’m Sora.”


	17. Kairi

The gummi ship zoomed between worlds. Kairi, Donald, and Goofy were on a mission to find the missing king of Disney Castle—King Mickey. Along the way they had run into a boy from a city, Aladdin. One thing led to another and now they were looking for another person of royalty, Princess Jasmine. Not to mention Kairi’s friends Riku and Sora. They were looking for them all.

Kairi remembered the woman who stood in the palace garden talking to Jafar. Her darkness was so strong she had been able to feel it through the thick walls of the palace. Jafar had addressed her as Maleficent—she was the one who had kidnapped Princess Jasmine, but something she said wouldn’t leave Kairi’s mind. She knew Riku. And Vanitas, who was he?

“Kairi, are you feelin’ alright?” Goofy called back to her. “Does Donald need to cure you again?”

“No way!” cried Donald, excited from firing his weapon controls. “My magic is the best there is, she should be fine.”

“Donald’s right, Goofy—I’m fine. I’m just a little distracted. I can’t stop thinking of that woman in the garden—Maleficent.”

“Maleficent?” asked Goofy. There was a cold presence that fell over the ship as her name was said. Everything seemed to dim and Kairi felt chills up her spine.

“We’ve got trouble ahead!” Cried Donald, but for some reason he stopped firing. Kairi looked out the window, realizing there were no more heartless to shoot at. Instead, something different stood in their path.

“Gawrsh, what’s that?” shivered Goofy, putting a gloved hand to his mouth.

“Darkness.” Kairi said quietly. A large pool of darkness swirled in front of them. Kairi stepped to the back of the ship. She was terrified.

“Can’t we go around it?” asked Donald frantically. Goofy was punching and pushing buttons and pulling all the levers in his reach.

“The ships not responding! We’re headed straight for the darkness!”

Donald and Goofy braced themselves for what was coming. Kairi pressed herself tight against the back wall and as they entered the darkness, she felt her legs buckle beneath her. She hit the ground hard, her hands and knees burning from the ground. The ground. It was hard rock and not the cool and clean floor of the gummi ship.

Kairi slowly opened her eyes. She didn’t recognize where she was. She was on her hands and knees on a narrow path that stretched endlessly into the darkness. Darkness. It was all around her. Soft colors of blue and purple pulsed around in the distance off the sides of the path, almost as if this place were alive. She sat back on her legs and stared at her hands. It was hard to see, but she could tell her palms were swollen and red. She didn’t want to know what her knees looked like, having taken most of the impact.

“Donald!” She cried into the darkness. “Goofy? Where are you?”

A voice called from behind her. She whipped her head around, but it wasn’t Donald or Goofy that stood before her, still it was familiar. “Are they that important to you? More important than old friends? Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking…about us.”

A pressure built up behind Kairi’s eyes and she was soon crying. She ran towards Riku and buried her burning nose into his chest. She was so happy to see him. Then she remembered what he had said to her back on the island. She inhaled a sharp breath and distanced herself from him. Her fists were balled as she glared at him.

“Why did you say what you did? Why did you tell me that I was never supposed to come to the island? What did you mean by that?”

It was then she noticed his eyes, his expression—he was wearing the saddest smile. So melancholy, he stared at Kairi, his expression making more tears fall from her face.

“Kairi. I’m so glad I got you back. You don’t know what I did to—“

“Don’t dodge the question!” She yelled, letting her tears fall. No more came.

“Whatever I said—no, whatever the _darkness_ said—it wasn’t me. I would _never_ hurt you.”

“Oh yea?” A voice called from the shadows. Kairi almost didn’t notice the boy standing in the darkness. “If you couldn’t control the darkness, then it’s your fault.” His arms were crossed and he stared at the ground as he spoke, an eyebrow cocked, a sick smile on his face. “You’re diving into something you can’t handle. No one told you to get involved—that was your choice. Your choice to down the darkness. It was _your_ words. You told this girl here that—“

It was then he looked up. His eyes were like a lantern, bright yellow and haunting. His gaze pierced Kairi’s heart and all at once she wanted to cry again. He looked like Sora. He looked so much like Sora it scared her. But what had happened? His hair, his eyes, they were different. He wore a suit of darkness and a scary expression on his face. He raced passed Riku and took Kairi’s hand. She tried pulling away but his grip was stronger than hers.

For a while all he did was stare. She looked into his eyes which made small movements, darting around to the different parts of her face—studying her. She had to say something. She was scared.

“What are you—“

“You’re beautiful.”

“W-what?”

“You must be the Kairi I’ve heard so much about. My name is Vanitas.”

“Your light is so pure,” he whispered, cupping his hand around her face. “I wonder if you could replace him…”

Kairi was about to ask what he meant by that when he was suddenly turned away from her by Riku, his hand a strong grip on his shoulder.

“What are you talking about? Replace who? Sora? Are you talking about Sora? We’re getting him back. Soon enough you’ll be gone.”

Vanitas chuckled, and grabbed Riku’s wrist, who winced at his strength as Vanitas slowly removed his hand from Kairi. They played a sort of arm wrestle in the air until Vanitas won, and as his prize he took Kairi in his arms.

“Sora, Sora, Sora. You can’t seem to let go of this idea that Sora’s still here. He’s gone, Riku, and I don’t feel bad about taking him from you.” Vanitas smiled. “I doubt I’ll feel bad about taking Kairi from you either.”

Kairi felt a tug on her body as Vanitas pulled her close to him. He held her hand up in the air and Kairi could feel the other on her waist. She didn’t want to look at him. Those familiar eyes turned to darkness were too much. Her nose burned with the threat of tears once more. This was too much. She looked over to Riku, to find some sort of comfort. But what she got, however, was to see him pulsing with darkness as well—darkness that encased his body so heavily it began to leak onto the floor. It crawled its way over to Vanitas, wrapping around his legs. He didn’t seem to notice until it began to physically weigh down his body.

“Get your hands off her,” seethed Riku. Kairi could hear Vanitas choke. She looked up toward him to see him struggling, yes, but with a smile on his face. He only gripped Kairi tighter. It hurt. Vanitas was scaring her. Riku was scaring her.

“Riku,” she pleaded. Something gripped her leg and she winced. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the darkness beginning to tighten around her leg. “Riku, stop!”

“What are you going to do, Riku? If you take me down then Kairi comes too. You wouldn’t hurt one of your closest friends, would you? She’s the only one you have left.”

Riku’s face creased itself with frustration and Kairi could feel the darkness encasing more and more of her body each second. Kairi shut her eyes and concentrated. It was almost instinct to summon her keyblade by now, but with each passing moment her breath escaped her. She focused her energy on her hands. She was thinking of that familiar sensation and trying to call upon it but nothing happened. She tried and tried but still nothing happened.

The darkness was suffocating, but the way Vanitas held her was almost reassuring. It’s because they were his hands—Sora’s. She looked at him and then back to Riku, their eyes fixed on each other as they fought for her—or was it just to prove who had more power over the situation—their darkness fighting against one another’s. Either or, Kairi still did not want to be in the center. She was panicking, but she was in too tight a grip to breathe. Her eyes fell to the ground and onto the darkness that feasted on them. Purple. Blue. But suddenly red, suddenly yellow, suddenly green—they all swirled together until her vision was completely covered before everything just went—dark. Kairi could have sworn she heard screaming.

She awoke on a cold floor unlike the rocky one she had encountered in the dark. She was in a room with a high ceiling, brassy decorations and at the head of the room—a large and looming fixture in the shape of a heart. Vanitas and Riku were crouched on either side of her. They both looked equally worried which was ironic coming from the situation they had all just left. Vanitas’s eyes looked down at her, hidden under a creased brow. They were so much like…

“Sora,” Kairi said. She reached a hand up toward his face. “What happened to you.” Vanitas grabbed her hand with such fierceness then that Kairi let out a sharp whine. Noticing her pain, he relaxed his grip.

“Sorry it’s just—I’ve said it too many times. I’m not Sora. I’m Vanitas.”  He gave a slow pull on her arm until Kairi was sitting up with him and Riku, who looked over to Vanitas to speak.

“You may not be Sora, but you came from him, right? You’re a part of him.”

“Still not Sora, no. I’m a part… of Ventus.”

“Who’s Ventus?”

“He’s a loser who never cut it,” Vanitas said, making a face. His brow then dropped and he stared off into this distance. “Actually, in the end, he wound up being even stronger than me,” Vanitas let out a cold chuckle. “I can’t believe he took me down.” Riku shook his head. He stood up and held out a hand to Kairi. Vanitas punched Riku in the back of the knee making him fall back to the ground. He smirked and stood, handing Kairi his hand instead. She ignored it, standing up on her own.

“You’re not making any sense,” she said.

“I’ll start from the beginning. I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to know all about me.” Vanitas flexed arrogantly and shot her a smile.

“You’ll tell her but not me?” said Riku, standing up. Vanitas ignored him and began telling his story, his back to Riku.

“Ventus was just this kid, you know? And I don’t say that in a sympathetic manner. He couldn’t hold his own, just like a child. To make him stronger, my master, Xehanort, split his heart into two pieces, one of light, and one of dark.”

“That’s you,” said Riku, who had stood back up. Vanitas raised a foot to Riku’s chest, trying to kick him back down but Riku caught it and threw it back down. Vanitas scoffed and crossed his arms.

“I’m not telling you anymore. Not if it’s for him.” The only thing you need to know now is how important it is I get back to him.”

“What about me?” said Kairi. “You were talking about Ventus earlier, weren’t you? You said I could…replace him.”

“If it has to do with Kairi, she has every right to know more of what you’re talking about,” argued Riku. Kairi could feel her heart pounding. “What do you want with Kairi?”

“It’s hard to explain,” Vanitas said. Riku began to shout.

“It’s not hard to explain, you just don’t _want_ to explain.”

“You wouldn’t get it.”

“I’m not letting you put Kairi in danger!”

“Look who’s talking. You almost let the darkness swallow her. You can’t control yourself like I can. What would have happened if Kairi had downed any of the darkness you had summoned earlier?”

“ _What_ are you talking about?”

“Can’t you see her heart is pure light? Even a single drop of darkness would—"

“Then why do _you_ need her? You are a creature of pure darkness. Even just letting her _near_ you would—“

Vanitas’s keyblade was out. When Riku saw this he jumped back, summoning his sword. Kairi cowered backwards. Back on the island, Riku and Sora would fight. They both had wooden weapons and they would spar. But something was different. Darkness consumed the two before her—no, darkness consumed Riku. As for Vanitas, he _was_ darkness.

“Shut up!” snarled Vanitas. “You don’t know anything!”

“You’re right, I don’t know anything. That’s why until I do, I will protect Kairi.” Riku turned to the side. “And if I take you down then I will be protecting Sora as well!”

“Sora is gone! But…if you take me down then he will never return.”

“Liar!”

Riku charged after Vanitas who guarded his stance.

Kairi thought she had to do something. They could seriously get hurt, and if what Vanitas said is true, if Riku hurts him at all then Sora might never come back. She had to stop them somehow, but only light can stop the darkness, so she charged between them.

However, it was too late for either of them to stop their swing.

It was just too late.


	18. Riku

 “So, Kairi’s home is out there somewhere, right?” asked Sora.

“Could be,” said Riku. “We’ll never know by staying here.”

“But…how far could a raft take us? Especially one made by _you._ ” Sora teased. Kairi giggled and nudged Sora in the elbow, but Riku continued staring off into the ocean.

“Who knows? If we can’t get off the island by a raft…I’ll think of something else.” Things were quite for a while, and Kairi decided her turn to talk.

“So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?”

“Hm…well I haven’t really…thought about it.” Riku said. Sora tried teasing him again, trying to get him to play back. Riku had been acting unusually strange that evening.

“And you’re so determined to leave—you haven’t even thought of what you’re gonna do afterward!” Riku didn’t poke back, but instead continued, playing a staring game with the dancing waters.

“It’s just…I’ve always wondered why we’re here on _this_ island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And, suppose there _are_ other worlds…then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So, we could’ve just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?”

“I dunno.” Sora mumbled. He laid back against the trunk, his feet dangling off the sides. It was obvious he was tired, though the sun had only just sunk, and Riku’s seriousness was getting to him.

“Exactly. That’s why we need to go out there and find out, just sitting here won’t change a thing—or laying! Sora, you’ve been sleepy this entire week!” Riku walked over to Sora who yawned in response, smiling now that Riku had talked back to him. “It’s the same old stuff.”

“I can’t help it!”

“So then let’s go.” He turned his head back to the horizon and while Sora yawned again Kari commented once more.

“You’ve been thinking a lot lately, haven’t you?” Riku turned from the ocean to Kairi, the edges of his person illuminated by the back light of the sun.

“Thanks to you. If you hadn’t come here, I probably would have never thought of any of this. Kairi, thanks.”

Riku knew that was a lie. Back on the island, just days before they had planned to set said, he had lied to Kairi. He said it was because of Kairi he wanted to explore other worlds, but that was just an excuse. He couldn’t tell her it was because of him…that man he met on the island ten years ago. Who was he?

Vanitas’s keyblade had pierced Riku’s heart, his weapon being the longer one. It was a cruel game of jousting, and while Kairi had tried to stop it, she had failed. The air was horribly still and the point of Vanitas’s keyblade lay crooked in Riku’s chest. There was light erupting from it, escaping Riku and disappearing, leaving so that the darkness inside him could take over. Blackness ate away at his heart, and yet Vanitas only fed more into him through his keyblade. Nothing but pure darkness.

Riku’s breath ceased, his head thrown back as he choked, darkness feeding directly into his body. It made him feel heavy and weightless at the same time. He was filled with emotion but could almost feel nothing at all. He was burning up but at the same time he was so, so cold. Darkness. It was a perfect balance. That’s what he thought.

_At last, our moment is here. Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger, new one! I swore I would survive…_

“Master…” Vanitas whispered, and Riku saw Vanitas drop to his knees. He’d never seen him so humble. Riku wanted to laugh, but his voice didn’t come out. Vanitas spoke again with a trembling happiness.

“Master Xehanort, it’s you. This is where you’ve been all this time?” Vanitas chuckled, breathing heavy through excited breaths. “I’ve waited for you, Master. All this time, sealed away, so I can have another chance. I won’t disappoint you this time.”

“Master Xehanort?” Kairi was on her knees, but she was not groveling. She had fallen forward after having failed to stop the attack between the two boys. “No, it’s—it’s Riku. He was Riku just a second ago, who is—who are you?”

“It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness.”

“Then I shall call you thus…Master Ansem.” Vanitas was still on the ground. Kairi shot up.

“No! No! You’re Riku, and you,” she turned to Vanitas, “you’re Sora.”

“We are no longer your precious friends, Princess,” Ansem’s voice was slow and steady.

“No, you’re my friends, Riku and Sora! I’ve been searching for you, and here you are. You’re right here.”

Riku could see Kairi walk up to him through Ansem’s eyes. She was even smaller now. Riku was bigger. He felt more powerful, but was it worth it to see the tears welling up in Kairi’s eyes? Was it worth it to see the shadow of his best friend submitting before him? He wanted to reach out. He sought out the darkness to protect his friends but what…what had he done?

“Riku, I know you’re in there!”

“Don’t bother. Your voice can no longer reach him where he is,” Ansem lied. Riku was right there. He could see and hear everything, and he wanted so desperately to scream. “His heart belongs again to darkness.”

“Again?”

“All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it. It grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came.”

“Riku,” Kairi pleaded.

“You see, darkness is the heart’s true essence.” At his words, Vanitas was on his feet.

“And those that are void of darkness…” Vanitas’s picked Kairi’s hand like a rose into his. He kissed it delicately, almost as if it were a flower. Riku tried to stop him. He tried. He tried so hard, but Kairi’s skin turned black at her hand.

“No!” she cried, ripping her hand away from Vanitas’s touch. The darkness faded away. “Give me my friends back!”

“Princess…” Ansem’s voice reverberated through Riku’s mind. “Your old friends are gone. But make friends anew, find a friend in us.”

Riku studied Kairi as she stepped away from Ansem. Her expression was fierce, her knees dirty with blood and her hair had tangled in a few places. Her shoulders were square and she was hunched. He knew Kairi was always a serious girl, so he knew she meant business. She was always so quiet, but on the inside, she was the same as him and Sora. They’d do anything for each other. He had tried using darkness for her and Sora. But now she’s using light for them.

Light.

It erupted from her hands, a shining metal key relaxing in her grip. It was like Vanitas’s, but it was purer—it was Kairi’s keyblade. It had chosen her.

“Give me back my friends,” she said, this time in a lower tone. This time without fear.

“Silly girl… Do you honestly think you can defeat me?”

Kairi charged toward Ansem—toward Riku. Would this hurt? But Vanitas had blocked her path. His keyblade grinding against hers.

“Master Ansem,” he said. “I will show you how strong I am. Just wait. I swear, I will not let you down again.”

Kairi and Vanitas began to fight. Metal clashing against each other fiercely. Riku retreated into his mind. Cold and blank, nothing but darkness now.

“You can hear me, can’t you? Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.”

“You cannot fight me here, boy. You have no power.”

“This is my heart. Get out!”

“Your heart?” There was a chuckle that echoed through Riku’s mind. “Darkness rules your heart—it gives me control. Muscle and sinew that once obeyed you now rebels against you. How you can remain here at all now confounds the mind.”

“You said it yourself—there is darkness within every heart. But I will not let it consume me! I swear I will take you down.”

“Don’t even entertain the thought of escaping me. In the end, your heart will be engulfed by mine forever. And as I recall, you couldn’t even handle your own darkness. How ever will you triumph over mine?”

“My friends…Sora, Kairi—my power.”

“What was that, boy?” Ansem was almost laughing once more. “Your friends?”

“That’s right. My friends are my power! I'm not afraid of what the darkness holds now. Even if you do wrest control of my heart from me, even if you cast me in the deepest, darkest abyss, you'll never sway me from the ones I swore I’d protect. Whatever the cost, I’d do anything for them!”

“Brave words, to be sure. But I'm a patient man. We can take as much time as we need to settle this little property dispute. However, know this: you are just one of many roads that I might choose to take. You should consider yourself lucky…Riku.”

Ansem’s voice made him shiver.

He watched as Kairi as she fought Vanitas—no, Sora, his best friend. Their faces were so angry, so full of hate and rage.

“What else is darkness, but hate and rage?” Ansem said, replying to Riku’s thoughts.

There was a knocking on the floor and all attention was now on the woman at the forefront of the room, who was dropping her scepter against the cold metal floor.

“My, my, my…isn’t this a turn of events?” Kairi’s eyes darted toward her where they became stuck.

“You’re Malefi—“ but Vanitas had cut Kairi off with his keyblade. They continued to duel nonstop, Maleficent leaving them to greet Ansem.

“I see you’ve taken my boy. I’ll have you know he was not finished serving me. I believe an apology is in order for interrupting my plans, Xehanort.” Riku felt Ansem let out a deep, throaty laugh.

“Foolish woman. This boy never belonged to _you_. Long ago his fate was sealed. He has and always will belong to me—to darkness. You can have your apology. A complacent end, for there is no more room for you in this story.”

“What do you mea—“

A puddle of darkness formed at her feet. Her graceful demeanor disappeared and she began to panic. She grabbed ahold of Ansem and Riku could feel her claw-like nails digging into him, scratching deeply as she sunk deeper down into darkness. Her mouth was gaping, begging for mercy. The darkness entered her through her deep red lips. She drowned in darkness, a stain on the floor where she had vanished forever.

He was cruel. Ansem was too cruel.

“A pitiful puppet. The heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning. What power did she think she had? She failed to notice her heart, slowly being eaten away by what she craved the most. Darkness. And here she lie. A fitting end for such a fool.”

Ansem stepped on the stain, rubbing his foot into it like he was squashing a bug. It vanished, and he turned his attention back to the ongoing fight.

Kairi’s brow was covered in sweat, her neck and arms shiny with moisture and Vanitas was beginning to tire out as well. His breathing was heavier than it had been at the beginning and his keyblade seemed to weigh him down more and more after each hit. Kairi charged at him with one last hit and he fell to his knees, defeated, exhausted—he had lost.

“You’ve done it Kairi,” Vanitas breathed. “Now that my body is about to perish…you and I will have to join together!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you get it? Pure light against pure darkness to forge the ultimate key. The all powerful X-blade! “X,” the letter that spells endings. You and I have the power to make it.”

“I’ll never join with you!”

“Her heart is too strong,” Ansem said. He stepped forward toward both of them. They were both exhausted but Kairi was not giving up just yet. “I, however, am much stronger.”

Riku’s hand was warm as a ball of darkness erupted in his palm. Did Ansem plan to hurt Kairi? He couldn’t. Riku swore…he swore he’d always protect them—his friends. He’d fallen so far from his promise, but he wasn’t all the way gone. He had planned to get Sora’s heart back—and he knew that he will. He had planned to get Kairi back—and he did, but this is not what he wanted. Now he must protect her. This is his final chance.

“No!” Riku called to himself. “I won’t let you use me for this.”

Something pushed Riku forward—his will. It was his sheer strength of will to save his friends that had nearly allowed him to free himself from imprisonment. He could see his hands in front of him, a projection of himself in front of Ansem. He wasn’t all the way out, but he knew Kairi could see him. She called to him, one hand out and the other on her keyblade.

“Riku!”

“You’ve gotta fight! I’m right here, Kairi—I’ll fight alongside you. We’ll do this together.”

“I believe in you.”

Everything was quiet. Riku found himself floating. He was in his own mind once more. And Ansem was there with him.

He was tall with disgustingly orange eyes and cool grey hair that contrasted against his dark skin. His gloves went up to his elbows, his boots went up to his knees, and his chest was exposed in a cocky manner, an emblem of a heart keeping his coat together at his collar bone.

Riku drew his sword and tried to find footing in his weightless prison.

“I descend from master before master before master. You are a fool to think you could even come close to defeating me—no, to think you could even match my level at all.”

Riku knew he didn’t have to take him down—not entirely. He trusted Kairi and her keyblade to break him down on the outside while he kept him distracted on the inside. He hoped that before Ansem even knew it, he’d turn around to find himself finished. Hopefully, Riku would be able to get out unscathed.

Hit after hit Riku was beginning to accept he wouldn’t leave without a scratch or two. Ansem had his arms crossed and a mass of darkness had erupted from behind him—a heartless that stemmed from his body. It did the fighting for him, but whether it was moving on its own or controlled by Ansem was uncertain.

It gathered balls of darkness in its hands, throwing them at Riku, hoping to hit him, hoping they’d feed into the darkness inside him. Riku kicked his feet and swung his arms, desperate to get a hit in, but every time he got close, the heartless would swing its mighty claws at him. It hit him just a few times, each time knocking the air from his stomach, but he still had some fight left in him. He angled his sword at Ansem, looking down the tip at his figure. He rushed toward him, but Ansem was on him and another hit to the chest had sent him flying back once more. He coughed, trying to regain his breath, and for a moment he just laid there, floating.

“Had enough, boy?”

“Kairi…” he said begged. “Please.”

He suddenly heard choking directly in front of him, and shot up to see Ansem gripping tight at his chest. She must have done it. Kairi must have done it! The extended heartless behind him died out and retreated back inside his body. Ansem stared off into the distance with pleading eyes.

“Impossible…”

The next thing Riku knew, he was back in the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the milestone of reaching 50.000+ words on this fanfiction I welcome you to leave a thoughful review on any of the chapters having you already read them. To those that do, a free sketch of their favorite kingdom hearts character will be given--even if it's a character that has not (yet) appeared in this fanfiction.
> 
> This is a story to be shared with all Kingdom Hearts fans and I'd like to let you all know that I take into consideration your comments when it comes to suggestions on what to do with the story. If you'd like to see more of your favorite character, for me to include another character, a world, a theme, then please let me know! I can't include relationships, though I can and will provide service for those pairings you're interested in.
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading so far, I hope to continue bringing to great content in the future!


	19. Ventus

Xion. Sora. Her voice was slightly lower, her face completely different from when she had last drawn back her hood. She was Sora now. All eyes were on him. The room still. Roxas felt something rush over him. A sense of familiarity that he couldn’t explain. Then, there was laughter. High pitched and somewhat obnoxious. Larxene was doubled over in a fit of laughs. She leaned on Axel, hardly able to breathe.

“Are you kidding me? Look everyone, it’s the keyblade master! He’s just standing there!” She beat her fists on Axel’s shoulder. He looked uncomfortable but he didn’t move. His face was static as he stared at Sora. Roxas slipped away from Axel and approached Sora.

“No, no, no!” Vexen scolded Larxene. “It’s Riku! Riku is the chosen one, not Sora!”

“Sora, Sora, Sora,” Zexion tapped a toe. “Sora is there, in the view of the crystal. Sora is here in the room with us—our former member, Xion. What is going on here? What indeed…?”

Axel pushed Larxene aside as her laughter died down. He approached Sora and they stared at each other. Sora’s expression strong, Axel’s static. His back was to the group, but he talked to them strongly. He exposed the traitor amongst traitors.

“Xion is one of Vexen’s experiments. Isn’t she, Vexen? A puppet that would store the keyblade wielder’s heart and memories. Riku is the chosen one, yet Sora stands in front of us. Sora, who is able to wield the keyblade.”

Vexen was stuttering, but Axel didn’t let him combat what he was saying, however, there was nothing he could say anyway that could save his skin. He was caught. Axel knew everything.

“What we see in the crystal—Sora, he looks different from the one standing in front of us, but the real one is this one, no? The one with his heart and memories.

“Y-yes. Yes, that’s right!” Vexen let out a nervous laugh. “The one in the view of the crystal is nothing but the remnants of darkness from his heart. He is of no use to us.”

“And his keyblade?”

“Useless! As if someone from the darkness would manage a weapon of light.”

“And the other, where is he?”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“You created this replica—Xion, No. i. She is the shell in which we placed all that Sora is.”

“Y-yes, that is true.”

“But you knew about Riku being a wielder as well. Where is No. ii, Riku’s replica?”

“He…doesn’t exist.”

“Liar!” Axel yelled. He was still facing Sora. Roxas shook in his boots watching the two. Axel had been nothing but kind to him, so to see him take on this new composure…he was scared. “Where is the other replica?”

“I’m telling the truth, Axel! The boy Sora had lost himself to a heartless when he entered the Realm of Darkness. I was able to retrieve his heart and memories, but Riku is still whole—he has yet to split apart like Sora had.”

“Well if he doesn’t tear himself apart soon, then we’ll have to do it.” Axel’s voice was low and serious, then he scratched the back of his head and let out a small chuckle. “I was starting to think you were a traitor, Vexen, and you know the rule.” And he said the phrase very seriously. “Traitors must be eliminated.”

Vexen’s eye twitched. The whole room breathed in turns. Then, Roxas came forward, his hand on Axel’s arm. Axel mused at him, he seemed to only have interest in this puppet. In Sora.

“Hey, Roxas…” Axel started. Roxas turned toward Axel when he had reached Sora’s side. Then the room saw it—Roxas and Sora were of the same height, same face. Their eyes blinked at the same time and their expression wasn’t unlike the other’s. Marluxia’s voice carried across the silent members.

“Take them to see Naminé.”

Naminé was small for a girl her age and became even more subdued when Axel approached her, Sora and Roxas following behind him. She was clutching a blank sketchbook, a colored pencil tight between her fingers. Sora remembered Naminé, and he liked to think she was his friend. She took care of him when he had first been created—when his consciousness had begun to grow and take over who used to be Xion. Naminé could talk up a storm, but whenever she was around the members of the Organization her face became static, no hint of any expression but sadness. There was a slight quiver on her lower lip—fear, and she sucked it in to hide it. Roxas’s heart was breaking.

He touched his chest.

Then he remembered.

He didn’t have a heart.

“Now, I don’t know what’s going on,” Axel started. His hands were on hips and even though he towered over Naminé, he was looking up to the ceiling. “I thought I did, honestly I thought I had it all figured out. I mean, what good is a double agent if he’s not filled in with what’s going on?”

Naminé stayed silent, her eyes on her hands. Her knuckles were white around the pencil and Roxas wanted to approach her. He took a step forward, in sync with Sora.

“To believe _Vexen_ had more information that I did. But you know even more than he does, don’t you Naminé?”

Axel’s eyes darted down on her and she jumped when he said her name.

“Axel, come on,” Sora begged with another step forward. “Look what you’re doing to her. She’s terrified!”

“Okay then, you talk to her.” Axel pushed Sora in front of Naminé, but she stayed frozen, Axel still standing too close. “Alright, alright,” said Axel, throwing his hands in the air. He walked toward the far end of the room and leaned against the wall. His lips twisted and his arms crossed. He left the rest up to Sora and Roxas.

Naminé looked up at the boy standing in front of her and smiled gently. She stopped shaking and relaxed back into her chair.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you, Sora.” There was a long pause before she said his name, and she did the same thing after she had turned toward Roxas, the same smile on her face, but the name different. “And you too, Ventus.”

“Ventus?” He was questioning it but the way he said it was more with a sense of familiarity than shock.

“That’s right. Ventus—it’s your true name.”

“And I’m…I’m Sora right? I’m not anyone else? Xion?”

“No, you’re all still you.” Naminé chuckled.

“Then, what about that boy in the crystal? He looked just like me.” Sora wondered. Naminé nodded.

“That boy is named Vanitas. Sora, he is the darkness that was buried deep within your heart. When you were struck by that heartless, all parts of you were separated—your darkness, your heart, your memories, and you—Ventus,” she said, and turned to Roxas at the last part. Her pale blue eyes seeing right through him.

“Ventus,” Sora said, “is a part of me?”

“Was.” Naminé said. “Now he’s free.”

“Free?” Roxas spoke to Sora. “Was I…imprisoned in your heart?”

“A long time ago,” Naminé started, and she took the colored pencil to the sketchbook on her lap, mapping out time. “Ventus, you had your heart shattered, and left incomplete. Most people would disappear, but you were saved. He was saved by you, Sora.” Sora and Roxas stared at each other, trying to piece together their history. “Sora, you listened with your heart and heard Ventus’s call. You took him into your heart, and he stayed there for ten years.”

“Ten years? No wonder I don’t remember, that was _so_ long ago!” Sora’s eyes were wide and he switched glances between Naminé and Roxas, who, like how Xion was now Sora, was now Ventus. The feelings rushed over Ventus as he heard Naminé speak. Feelings followed by memories. He didn’t know them, but they were his, weren’t they?

Ventus stood in the middle of the keyblade graveyard, a world that was only remnants of the great keyblade war. His keyblade felt heavy, he had been training all day, yet still he hadn’t made an inch of progress. He had to do something. Master Xehanort was watching over him.

Several heartless surrounded him. He moved his head from one to the other, trying not to stare too long into their horrible yellow eyes. He wanted to move, but Ventus found his feet nothing but stuck to the ground.

“Please don’t do this, Master. I’m not strong enough!” Ventus’s voice was a cry, one Master Xehanort had almost had enough of.

“No, it is because you are trying to hold it in. Let the dark impulses waken in the pit of your heart. Release them here and now! Sharpen your fear into rage.” Shadow after shadow erupted from the ground as he spoke. “You must! If you do not let the storm within you run it’s course, it will wipe you from the face of the world, make no mistake!”

Ventus could have just given in.

“Do it. Embrace the darkness. Produce for your master the X-blade!”

And all at once the heartless were on top of him. He fought. He fought so hard. But he did not give in to darkness. He was too afraid. Too afraid of the darkness. Too afraid to fight, to not fight, he didn’t know what to do. He blocked what attacks he could from the heartless, only a few, before quickly collapsing. There was barrage of darkness upon him before Master Xehanort called them off.

“Really? You would rather die than use the power?”

Master Xehanort placed his foot upon Ventus and turned the boy over on his back. He was almost unconscious, having taken a beating to near death by the heartless.

“Feckless neophyte… If I must… I will extract the darkness from within you myself.” He drew his keyblade—the Master of all Master’s keyblade. With its power he aimed it down at Ventus’s chest and did just so. The boy’s eyes went blank as his heart was split in two, the one of darkness taking form. A creature of darkness born like no other.

“Empty creature from Ventus riven… To you, the name Vanitas shall be given.”

“Yes, Master,” it responded.

“It’s confusing, I know,” said Naminé. She drew a heart on the page to add to her story and added chains in an ‘x’ across the center. “Hearts and memories…they’re a mess,” but she smiled. “But they’re all connected like a chain. Once you piece together one link, the rest is easy.”

“So Ventus is like my brother.” Sora smiled. Ventus copied his smile and thought how dorky Sora kind of was, but he seemed to light up the room. He even made Naminé smile.

“You’re more like roommates,” she laughed lightly.

“Naminé,” Ventus said, his new sense of self settling within him, though he still seemed rather dazed, as if his heart hadn’t completely woken up yet. “How do you know all this stuff, about me and Sora?”

“Vexen…doesn’t like to refer to me as a Princess of Heart. He calls me a witch because of the powers I have. But those powers… I can manipulate memories and hearts and the light within others.”

“Princess of Heart?”

“Yes, I’m…not allowed to talk about it,” she stared past the boys to Axel, who had his head back against the wall, his eyes closed. When Naminé didn’t continue he raised his eyebrows and shrugged, eyes still closed. He was listening closely, but he didn’t seem to care. “This happened ten years ago as well, when my—when some of the Organization’s world fell to darkness. When that happened, their princess disappeared. Back then, the wise king was working with the world’s scientists. Vexen was one of them.”

“Vexen’s the one who…who made me, right? I mean, this body.” Sora said.

“Yes, Sora. And he made me too. I am the shadow of…Radiant Garden’s Princess.”

“Then why do they have you locked up here? Why do they intimidate you with their—their intimidating-ness! If you’re a princess, Naminé, then you should be treated like one.”

“It’s not up to me. The king went missing years ago. Since then I’ve been under the Organization’s care.”

“Doesn’t seem like they’re taking much _care_ of you though.” Sora crossed his arms. Ventus turned toward Naminé.

“So, what do we do now? We’re not like the other Nobodies. We—Sora and I, we have hearts.” Ventus said the last part with somewhat of a smile.

“That’s the best part, Ventus. Because you and Sora have hearts, you can follow them. You don’t need anyone to tell you what to do.”

“Naminé you’re like me though,” Sora mused. “You were created by Vexen like me, but you have your own memories and your own—”

“No. Don’t say it, please. I’m not like you, I don’t have a heart. I was created in the image of the missing princess, but I am not her I could never be… I don’t have any of her memories either, you know? Just the ones I’ve made since I was…created. I don’t have her heart. Unlike you Sora, you have your own heart.”

“My heart!” Sora suddenly remembered. “My darkness! I saw him with Riku—that Vanitas guy. And Riku was covered in darkness! Naminé we have to help him! Riku turned to darkness after I fell to a heartless, there’s no doubt! I shouldn’t have left him,  I—”

“Sora, it’s okay, it’s not your fault. You’ll get Riku back. Many people say the keyblades can manipulate the light and darkness within people’s hearts, so you’d think you’d be able to get him back, but that’s not true.”

 “Then…we can’t save Riku?”

“Regular keyblade’s cannot change the contents of another’s heart, manipulate it yes, but the heart contains what the heart contains.”

“So it’s…useless.”

“I said _regular_ keyblades cannot manipulate the light and darkness within people’s hearts. But, there is a special one that can—the Keyblade of Heart. It can lock away Riku’s darkness and Vanitas as well. He was the one that flipped Riku’s heart inside out—his darkness on the outside… But there is still light within him. You can save Riku and lock away Vanitas once more.”

“No way!” cried Sora. “I don’t want Vanitas back inside my heart.”

“While I said he was your darkness, Sora. I meant that he had belonged to you while Ventus had belonged to you as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry, Sora. He’s a part of Ventus, not you.”

Ventus squeezed his fists until his gloves squeaked.

“So, he’s _my_ darkness,” he said. “I’m the one who has to deal with him.”

“I’m sorry Ventus. You’re…also the one who’ll have to wield the Keyblade of Heart. You’re the only one who can.

“I can wield a keyblade too though, right?” Sora asked.

“I’m sorry,” Naminé said. “You were only able to wield one as long as Ventus was in your heart. It has to be him.”

“Alright,” Ventus said, taking on his responsibility. “Where is the Keyblade of Heart?”

Naminé began sketching out a keyblade. It looked menacing, like it was made of darkness, and Ventus wondered if that’s what a heart truly was—darkness. She drew seven hearts around the keyblade.

“The only way to get the Keyblade of Heart is to gather the Princesses of Heart. They’re those whose hearts are pure light. An evil fairy named Maleficent began gathering them a long time ago, but it was for her own selfish gain. Even so, she’s the only one who knows the whereabouts of them right now.”

“You’re one of those princesses though, right Naminé?”

“While I said I was I… I’m a nobody, Sora. I don’t even have a heart. You’ll have to find the real princess. The one I was shadowed after.”

“Do you know her name?” Ventus asked.

“No, Vexen never told me but…she’ll look a lot like me.”

Sora looked to the ground, a face coming to mind, one like Naminé’s. Her face like a heart. Her deep hair the color of one too. He turned to Ventus and Naminé and nodded. He knew her.

“Kairi.”

 


End file.
